A Heart of Mesquite
by The Blood Red Moon
Summary: So rather than torturing Loki, Odin gets some sense and admits that what Loki turned out to be was a product of bulling and neglect. After some research a spell is found that will turn back Loki's life until such a point as he could be saved. When they began to cast the spell, everyone was expecting something, but no one expected the result.
1. The First Root

When Odin had announced that after much consideration the blame for Loki's actions on Midgard could not be punished by the normal means of Asgard, there had been much outrage and questioning. It wasn't until it was released that a healer had tried to help Loki's mind and had almost fallen into a state of shock at how broken and shattered he was, that the people of Asgard simmered down and accepted that there was no way to budge either Odin or Thor on the statement. Not four sunrises later it was told that in place of a punishment both Loki and Asgard were being given a second chance, a spell had been found that could be used to reverse Loki's time stream and bring him back to a point where he could be saved from the pits of madness. Along with this news came warnings of what were to happen to anyone who revealed to the new Loki what had happened over the last few years, and even more warnings about what would happen to anyone who dared harm the Loki that was to come based on old actions: those mostly came from Thor.

When the day finally arrived in which the spell would be placed upon Loki, who was currently under a powerful sleeping spell, there seemed to be a silence hung over Asgard. The Avengers, who had fought so hard to protect their planet from the man, had been invited to be present at the ceremony. Of them only Bruce had chosen to stay at the tower for rather obvious reasons. Like many of the Asgardians, most of the team members had been angered at Loki's lack of punishment, but this anger had turned to curiosity when Tony had brought up the fact that no one knew what age Loki would turn into.

Thor and Odin both had it firmly place in their minds that the spell would take but a few decades off of Loki and leave most of him remaining. Frigga had a bit more sight than both her son and husband and she had confessed to Steve that she would think Loki would return to the equivalent of his 20s. Hawkeye and Natasha both shared the same idea, as both of them had suffered through a fair amount of crap in their lives and neither of them could see Loki coming out as any older than 18. Steve had refused to give what age he thought Loki would come out, and Tony had guessed that he would be in his mid to early teens. Everyone had their own idea of what to expect as the spell folded itself around Loki's peacefully resting form.

No one had been able to foresee the five year old that lay where the man had once been.

A strange silence fell over the room as the room's occupants. Said silence lasted all of twelve shell-shocked seconds before the room burst into a flurry of noise and panic. Little could be made out between the boom of both Odin and Thor shouting at the same time, while the spell's casters were racing back and forth to check that everything had been cast correct. No one could really understand what was going on, thus nothing useful was really happening and the only thing all the chaos seemed to be doing was amusing Tony further. Though it was serving that purpose well as his armor was really the only thing stopping his from keeling over laughing.

It took almost two full minutes for the room to calm down enough so that someone could understand what was being said. Odin had taken the floor of the room with Thor barely stopping himself from growling at the casters. After a moment's quiet Odin spoke to the lead spell-caster "What error has caused your magic to regress my son far past the proper age?" as he spoke his voice boomed in a way that was clearly threating pain should an answer not be given that suited him.

"M-my lord, I am sorry but if there is an error in the spell then I can not find it. We checked the runes thrice fold before we even thought of casting the spell, I am afraid that it may be that the root of Loki's madness lies far deeper than was once thought." Stuttered out the caster in reply, the spindly man cringed in fear as he finished his statement. Hid head was bowed down and his eyes downcast.

It was only the presence of guests that allowed Odin to keep his temper in check and not strike down the caster before him, rather he breathed in deeply once before half speaking, half growling his reply "Then check them again. I want every available magician working to fix this error now." The casters took no time in seizing the dismissal before Odin could change his mind. They scurried from sight, taking their books with them.

Frigga, who had been standing right behind the throne in a state of shock up until this point, now brought herself back to reality enough so to understand that her youngest son was now a child laying upon a cold stone floor and could likely be hurt without anyone having checked on his health. Sweeping forward across the room, past Odin and Thor and down onto her knees next to Loki, ever so gently she reach out to touch his neck and feel for a pulse, and to her great relief she found one. It was pumping weakly as it always had: often it had worried her throughout his childhood at how much more fragile he was in comparison. It had been one of the reasons Odin had allowed Loki to pursue magic rather than swords.

The queen pushed the thoughts aside for later worrying as she ever so gentle scooped his tiny form into her arms and without paying her elder son or husband any mind, carried him down the hallway towards the healers.

The room she left behind was plunged into a silence as the subject of their shouting matches and in one case laughter exited the room. Now that the rage, panic and amusement had left the room, the only thing remaining was an awkward silence, said silence was broke when Tony decided to speak, his voice dripping with sarcasm "I think that went well."

A/N:

I'm sorry for lack of updates/sequel to Frozen Hearts Can Shatter Too. Lazy authoress is lazy. I promise I will have the second half of this up before the end of the month and with some luck I should have a fluffier sequel/companion piece to Frozen Hearts Can Shatter Too.

If I made any mistakes on this please feel free to tell me, this is unbetaed so any help is appreciated.

I now have a friend in real life betaing this for me! You should still feel free to point out anything he missed.


	2. The Second Root

A few hours had passed of chaos but finally it seems things had simmered down to a begrudged muttering. Frigga had barred Odin and Thor from entering the chambers of healing with a quick assurance that he was somewhat healthy and that their presence would only serve to distract the healers along with herself.

During the timespan that Thor and Odin had been waiting outside the healers' room so that they might be able to see Loki, one of the magicians had timidly approached them with the news that there had been no error found in the spell no matter how many times it was checked over. The poor man was very nearly brought to the dungeons in Odin's rage had Tony not stepped in to point out that it wasn't his fault that Loki was truly messed up. A shouting match might have ensued at that point had it not been but seconds after that statement that Frigga entered the hallway.

"Loki's condition has been stabilized. He now rests in one of the beds as the healers watch over him." Frigga had spoken in a firm voice, not with the volume of Odin or Thor, but with a finality that left no room for more arguing.

After a few seconds Thor dared to speak up from the corner in which he had tucked himself into. "Will we be able to see him soon?" his voice of a much softer tone full of what could have been hope or worry, most likely both.

Frigga gave her eldest son a smile and a nod accompanied by an answer "Yes. The healers will tell me when he has awakened. If he is well enough then I will send for you." She glanced around to see if anyone had anything more to ask and finding no other questions she swept down the hallway.

Barely an hour later one of the healers exited the doorway to find that Odin had left but Thor and the avengers had remained. Brushing passed them and ignoring Thor's hurried quarry as to Loki's condition the lady left the hallway in the same direction as Frigga. Minutes later she returned, following the queen as she made their way to the doorway. This time Thor's question did not go unanswered but rather he was given a soft reassurance that Loki was well. Once that had been taken care of Frigga went through the doorway and into the chambers of healing.

What she saw was not was she had been expecting. To be fair though, she wasn't really sure what she should have been expecting. Loki was huddled in a tangle of blankets backed against a wall and into a corner, he seemed to be very, very confused about what was going on and who all these strange people were. The healers had been attempting to get closer to him with soothing words, but all they had done was frighten him more.

"Stand back." Frigga murmured in a voice to soft for the child Loki to hear but loud enough so that the healers could. As they stepped back and Loki began to relax she stepped forward, crouching as she did so. In the softest and sweetest voice she could manage she spoke to the half child, half bundle "Loki, I know that you are scared right now, but I need you to calm down. Okay? Nobody is going to hurt you, I promise."

It took a few seconds of staring before Frigga's words made it to Loki's ears but even then he didn't seem to react to them. Rather he looked at her face for a few seconds more before croaking out in a shy, scared and _very_ confused voice

"Mother?"

While Odin, Thor and Frigga had all thought that de-aging Loki was a good idea, they had forgotten to include one very important point in their thoughts, _how in Hela's name are they going to explain this to Loki without revealing what happened? _Frigga had coaxed Loki back onto the bed, still mostly in the blankets, with a promise of an explanation, one that she was still trying to think up. After a few more minutes of being stared at by questioning eyes, she picked a story to tell him, one rather similar to a Midgard fairy-tale. She turned to him and began to spin the tale "I'm sorry to keep you waiting, but the shock of seeing you awake after so long has gotten to me. We had thought you dead or at least trapped in an eternal sleep for so long. You were hit with a spell and though we tried to undo the damage there was little that could be done."

Loki watched her closely throughout the tale and for a few moments Frigga thought he might call out her lie but she need not have fretted as a few seconds later he asked "Is everyone okay? Is Thor alright?" A note of panic sounded in his voice as he recalled his brother and worry writhed on his face.

Quickly Frigga moved an arm around him and reassured him in a soft tone "Thor is fine, as is everyone else. However they are… older. Much time has passed since you began your sleep. Many things have changed in Asgard." Carefully Loki turned over Frigga's words, reading into them. After having given her words much thought he tilted his head back and looked her in the eye before asking

"How old are they?"

The queen sighed and returned his gaze before answering "Thor and Sif now both stand fully grown, as do their friends. Thor has grown to be old enough to lead his warriors into battle and Sif has grown to be one of them."

At this statement Loki did not react as Frigga thought he might have. Throughout this whole thing she was surprised at how calmly he took the news once the threat to Thor had passed. She had been expecting more fear or outrage or panic. Not this quiet acceptance he was now giving her. If anything she would have preferred the panic. Then at least she could try to calm him down or sooth his fears.

Rather than fear or anger Loki simply gave a nod of his head. Not a shell-shocked nod of horror but just a nod as he schooled his face into a polite mask. Frigga began to worry the moment she saw it, she had seen a young adult Loki morph his face into that look far too many times and now that she looked back she could find it accruing earlier and earlier in her memories. She knew that the face meant Loki was hiding, she knew what hiding lead to. However, before she could move to attempt to help him he spoke up, his gaze still fixed on her eyes yet somehow not meeting them

"Is he here?"

Frigga did not miss the hidden question within his words '_Can I see him?' _Biting her lip she gave the question a few moments thought.On one hand she would have liked to spend more time with her son, not to mention Thor was an awful liar and Loki could catch on. On the other hand, Thor and Loki had been very close when they were younger and she wasn't sure if it would be a good idea to keep the two separated for long. Taking one more glance down at her youngest son she decided that anything that helped remove that mask from Loki's face was the best course of action.

"I will tell him that you wish to see him now. Will you be alright here on your own?" To which the former trickster gave a nod and just the slightest glimmer of excitement shone past the mask before he quickly locked it away and answered in a respectful voice, one that she would have expected to hear from a noble who sought something from Odin. Not from a child who had yet to have passed even the first marking of maturing.

"If he is not busy and has the time, then yes, I do think it would be a good idea for the two of us to meet. I also do not think I will have any issues being alone for a few minutes."

Frigga was now truly worried. Not because that sort of thing was unusual behavior for Loki when she looked back into his past, but rather that the fact that this was not unusual behavior for Loki.

Now that she took the time to glance backwards at those memories she did have of Loki, more worry attacked her as she noticed how easy it was for her to recall the times he had done wrong, but how hard it was for her to remember all the times he had tried to do right. She knew that there had been many times he had done the correct thing but it would seem that those times were almost always overshadowed by Thor. But no matter how far back she looked Frigga could not recall a time that Loki had not been like this. Only now with the proof thrust in front of her eyes could she look back and see all the wrongs Loki had been done.

Frigga pulled herself from her thoughts to give Loki a sweet smile and then exit the room. No words were offered from either, Loki because he had naught to say and Frigga because if she said any more she might very well break from the urge to beg her son for forgiveness.

Once outside the door in the hall that connected the healer's rooms, Frigga was relived to find no healers present so that she might not be seen in such a state. In the peace of the hall she sank down until she sat and covered her face with her hands as the memories of all the times she had passed over Loki. They flooded by her, a thousand moments of times that she could have done something.

A thousand times she had ignored his needs in favor of Thor's because at the time she had not been able to see that both children were her sons. Not simply the golden child. A thousand times she had forgotten a promise, a meeting or even Loki himself. A thousand times she had not stood up for him be it in front of children, nobles or Odin himself. A thousand times that she had stood by and allowed him to be mocked, harmed or punished to avoid a conflict. Even when she knew quite well he had done nothing to deserve it.

As Frigga looked back upon her failures she did not just morn over what she might have been able to do. Instead she learned, learned from all the wrongs she had done so that she would not make them over again with this second chance this wondrous spell had afforded her. And as she looked back over all those times she came to a conclusion. It was not a conclusion she wanted to draw and not one she would speak of until she had thought it over a hundred times, yet somehow she knew that it would always be the one she would draw. The factor that never changed throughout all that is bad that had happened to Loki was Asgard. From the people that lived in it to the very land itself that seemed to reject him she could see now that it would be near impossible to raise him here, especially after all that had taken place. Now Frigga could see that if Loki was to heal, was to be restored to his right state of mind, it would not happen in Asgard.

With that thought stuck now at the back of her mind she pulled herself up from the floor and cleaned her face with her sleeve. Frigga took a few moments but she managed to regain what was close enough to her normal composure so that Thor would not be able to see what worried her, not that she was worried, fooling Thor took all the same intelligence as fooling a rather loyal dog.

With a confidence so full and strong and yet so very fake, Frigga exited the hall onto the central conjugation of the healer's chambers and from there she exited into the hallway where Thor, Sif and their allies from Midgard awaited. When she strode out the doorway she was met with a tense silence.

Two glances told her that Odin had left the area. Good, this would give her an excuse to leave and attend to her thoughts. She spoke with the same definitive voice from before "Loki is now awake and as far as the healers and I can tell, he is unharmed. He is, however, more than a little confused. I have told him that he was attacked by a spell caster and plunged into a sleep in which he did not age. Thor, try not to bring up the matter, as you have as much talent in lying as Loki had at following orders. I am going to inform Odin of the current situation as well. If an issue should happen upon you, please contact one of the healers and they will inform me." And with that she swept down the hallway.

Thor almost leapt up from the seat he had taken at the news that Loki wished to see him. Seconds later he reminded himself of how fragile Loki had been when they were younger. If Loki wished to see him he would have to calm himself so as not to harm or scare him. As he calmed himself, he gave his mother a nod and walked into the chambers of healing. With cautioned steps he made his way in only to remember he didn't know what room Loki was in. He opened his mouth to ask but before he could one of the older healers put a finger to her lips and then moved it towards the first hall on the right. A moment passed with them in that pose before she shifted them so as to convey the number three. Thor gave her a grateful smile and nod before he moved to the hall and down it until he reached the first room. A closed door met him and after drawing a few shaky breaths before his hand clasped the doorknob and began to turn.

A/N:

Annnd I'm ending it there because I am a terrible person.

Next up will be the sequel to A Frozen Heart.

Some mistakes in the last chapter have been corrected thanks to my new beta!

See you guys next whenever-the-heck-I write-the-next-chapter!


	3. The Third Root

Thor entered the room quietly, as he did so he braced himself for what he would see. To be honest, he could barely remember what had happened that morning in the Throne room, and he hadn't been able to get a good look at the new Loki yet, when he had asked Frigga of his new age earlier she had just brushed it off with the vague term "Young" and then hurried on her way. Even with all the bracing he had done on the way to the room and in those hours outside it nothing could have prepared him for what he saw, Loki, his treasured little brother, looking barely old enough to talk, was curled up in a mound of blankets.

Now Thor had always and would always love Loki. Loki was his darling little brother and even though there had been times when Thor would do something horribly, horribly wrong or just in general be a terrible brother to Loki, before the ceremony it had always been that Loki would still love him back. Now Thor was having to resist scooping his baby brother up into his arms and never letting him leave. No really, Loki was absolutely adorable and Thor was using all of the control he could muster to not 'Aww' as Loki started to open his eyes. After a few moments Loki managed to succeed and drowsily he pushed himself up into a sitting position and scrubbed at his eyes with one hand. He glanced up after a moment more of clearing away the sleep, his green orbs brightening at the sight of his brother. Even through all of the years that he had missed Loki would still always recognize his brother and the thought brought a light to his eyes that Thor had not seen for ages. It did worry Thor that Loki did not smile at him, but then again Thor had done so little to be smiled at.

For a moment the two were just happy to see each other but Thor had never had much control and so he only made it for a few more seconds before he couldn't help himself and threw his arms around Loki barely managing to stop himself from squeezing the life out of him. Loki put up no fight at all and instead he wrapped his arms around Thor and returned the hug, with a fair bit less force.

"It is very good to see you awake and well brother." And Thor wasn't lying, Loki had not been well for a very long time if the spell had worked correctly and truly the god of thunder was very happy to have his brother back, no matter of his age.

"It is good to see you as well brother." Loki answered "Thank you for making time to see me."

The first set of words set Thor on cloud nine. Loki had not called him brother in such a truthful and affectionate manner for centuries. The second of Loki's words had Thor confused and he responded as such "How could I do anything less?" and after a moment's thought (Actually it was an impulse.) Thor scooped Loki up more fully into his arms before twisting himself to sit on the bed settling Loki in his lap both keeping their arms on one another.

Somehow Loki managed to keep his arms wrapped around Thor's side (Even though they were too small to reach even halfway around), he resettled himself onto his elder brother's lap without a complaint and for a moment he remained silent, still it was only a few seconds before he asked "How is everyone? What has changed while I've been asleep?"

"Sif is well, she has been concerned for you. The warriors have also been prospering. Mother and Father are both fine as well. Do you remember that world we once learned about? That place called Midgard where the people had just begun to learn? They have grown much throughout the years and now their world stands just as powerful as Asgard. I have made quite a few friends amongst their ranks. Some of them are now waiting out in the hallway before the chambers. I think that you will enjoy their company, especially that of Stark. He is very intelligent and works his own sort of magic that he calls science…" And as Thor continued to talk about everything and nothing he need not know that Loki had slipped once more into the grasp of sleep.

_~*% 1 Hour Later With Frigga %*~_

"It is settled then?" Frigga asked. She was sitting in an ornate chair facing opposite Odin. The two of them were in their shared bedroom near the balcony, both had serious looks resting on their faces. Neither of them looked very happy at the idea that was being discussed.

Odin took a few minutes before he spoke, his voice expressing an unhappy and distasteful acceptance "If the Midgardians agree to it, and Thor as well. Then yes, I think that the only course of action here is that Loki be removed from Asgard if only long enough for the noise and hatred about his attempted takeover to pass. I fear that no matter how much I threaten, it may not be enough to keep Loki from finding out about what has happened. Asgard will settle down, given time, but during that time it would be bad for Loki to remain here."

Frigga nodded at his words and stood up from her seat: she was doing all she could to not lose her composure. The queen had only just regained her son and she did not wish to send him away, but she knew it was for the best and that it was to keep Loki safe. Still there was a part of her that wanted to be selfish, to keep Loki in Asgard where she could watch over and protect him. Where she could sing him those old lullabies that she used to so long ago.

But Frigga was smarter than that and so with her heart cracking into pieces she spoke "I will go speak to Thor and his friends now." before she exited the room.

_~*% With the Avengers%*~_

Tony had been quiet for almost the whole of this ordeal, and Steve was now very worried about him: Tony was not a quiet person. Maybe he was feeling upset that Loki had gotten off easily? Perhaps he was worried about Thor? He was always one to keep things bottled up. With a self-assuring nod Steve covered the length of the room to where Tony sat in his armor. Awkwardly he sat down next to Tony and asked him "Are you okay Tony? You haven't said anything and we're starting to worry about you…" No response came from him which worried Steve further he spoke again "Tony, you really can't keep hiding like this. It isn't healthy!" Yet again Tony remained silent. Now Steve was starting to get angry, why did Tony insist on behaving like this! It was completely unacceptable.

Steve gave Tony a hit to the side of the helmet in an attempt to get him to answer. This time he got a response, Tony yanked off his helmet and demanded "Why did you do that?! I was about to get a new high score!"

Staring blankly for a few moments Steve tried to figure out what he meant before he noticed that in the helmet was a 'Game Over' screen for Space Invaders flashing in neon colors.

A/N: And there goes the angst factor right out the window.

Yes I do have a reason for why Thor's reaction was basically "OMG Puppy Loki! It will come up much later. Also I want to be able to write really overprotective Thor. XD It may also have been that I was listening to Disney music whilst writing this.

Also, in case anyone was wondering, Loki's clothes changed when he did as well because they also had the spell cast on them and that is how it works. But Loki's helmet wasn't on him when he was shifted. Why? Because it means I can put the five-year-old Loki in a giant helmet later on.

See you guys next time!

Side note for my beta; there's your Thor/Loki brother hug.


	4. The Fourth Root

'_Do not punch him. Do not punch him. Do not punch Clint.' _Was about all that Steve could think at the time. The fact that Clint was almost on the floor with laughter, and Tony was already on the floor and still laughing was not helping. Whatsoever.

Thank whatever god(s) that Frigga took that moment to appear around the corner and brought with her a silence. It was the sort of calm before the storm. Great, first he watched Loki, one of his greatest foes get reduced to a child, and now some new crap was going to come up. Why did these sorts of things always happen to him?

Still being the good solider he was (or so everyone liked to think), Steve greeted her politely, though he wasn't quite able to eliminate the trace of curiosity in his voice. Frigga gave him a nod in return and a moment of silence followed.

It was Tony who broke it. "Look, we know crap is going to happen and at this point I don't see how you could have good news for us. Can we skip the whole awkward dodging around, and just get whatever it is sorted out?"

Steve was about to give the inventor a smack up the head when Frigga gave Tony a smile and answered him "Yes, I do suppose that would be best. Odin and I have discussed the matter and have come to the conclusion that it is not safe for Loki to remain in Asgard. There is much resentment for him here and at least until thing have calmed and the people have settled, we think it best that he and Thor go elsewhere."

This almost caused an uproar amongst the Avengers. The issue with said uproar being that Tony spoke up before anyone else could. "Loki could come with us to Earth. While Fury will probably be angry about it, my guess is everyone else will be fine with it. Humans kinda suck at staying mad at little kids."

"Tony, I don't know if-" Steve tried to interject, only to have his interjection interjected by Tony, who waved him off while adding a quick end to the conversation.

"Too late. Already decided. Conversation is over."

The queen glanced back and forth between Tony and Steve with a raised eyebrow, trying to figure out whose word she should take. Before she could speak on the matter Cap decided to ask "Could we have a minute? To talk this over? We would have to figure out a few things first."

"Of course. I am going to check on Thor and Loki." She consented and with a smile Frigga moved towards the chambers of healing. The moment she was out of sight, Steve tried to reason with Tony but before his first word could be fully formed the brunette spoke.

"Look, I don't care what you think here. I'm not leaving that kid in this hole. If we do he'll end up just like before, I mean clearly those two didn't learn anything from all of this. The kid obviously has abandonment issues as an adult and few to no family connections here, and what's their first thought when they finally get a second chance? Let's abandon him. Again. I for one am not letting this happen to that kid for a second time. He and Thor can stay at my house, I can keep an eye on him there and maybe I can stop this mess from happening all over again."

The rest of the avengers looked at Tony with widened eyes. They had never heard that sort of tone in his voice. It wasn't quite a commanding tone, but it sure as hell held finality. It would be a more then fair to assume that perhaps Tony had some past that was related for this. Good luck getting any one of them to ask him about it though.

Steve finally dared to speak up. "I think that we can all agree to that?" which was met with nods from around the room.

_*% With Thor and Frigga%*_

With relief that the Midgardians seemed to be okay with the idea of Loki staying with them, Frigga made her way down the hall to the room she knew Loki and Thor were in. Carefully she inched open the door to peer in only to be met with a sight that brought a smile to her lips. Thor and Loki were curled up on the bed together, both fast asleep and both with their arms clutching one another. The blankets appeared to have been forgotten and so she pulled them over her sons. The smile still held its place.

For just a moment she wondering if sending Loki away was truly the right choice. Maybe he could stay- No. She could not allow emotions into this equation. Emotions played no part in good parenting and if she wished for the best to come of Loki then she would have to accept that fact.

A/N:

I'm stopping here. There will be another chapter up on Monday though! I will cover the move in that chapter and some of Kid Loki's inner monologue.

Things to come in the far or near future:

Sledding joy rides

Movies The Man of Steel

And holographic monopoly

Yes you should be very, very afraid.


	5. The Fifth Root

Things had been discussed, plans had been made and some things had been packed, but finally it was time for Thor and Loki to say goodbye to Asgard. Loki had been told another lie about the family of the sorcerer who had put him to sleep was possibly seeking to harm him, which he had accepted with a nod and blank stare when Frigga told him. It was more then a little disconcerting, and most of the avengers (including Thor) were convinced Loki didn't really believe them, but he wasn't asking questions so they weren't giving him answers. Steve still had hope; he was funny that way.

The team stood at the edge of the Bifrost with Heimdall as they awaited the arrival of Frigga and Odin. Already the Warriors Three and Sif were there to say their goodbyes. Sif seemed the most upset to see them leave: before this whole mess she had had a on and off friendship with Loki. The two of them had hated each other, Sif because Loki could have so easily take the life of a warrior which she had been forced to fight for her whole life, yet he chose the life of spell casting and books; both jobs normally reserved for women. Likewise Loki detested her for the torment he faced over choosing a career of a female, something that she would never have had to deal with.

Yet the two had also felt the kinship that was within their separate struggles. There had been times when the world would be overwhelming for the two of them and times when they weren't sure if they could go on. At those times the two of them would go into the forest where a broken wall gave a view of a whole valley to anyone who sat upon it, and they would sit there and rest. They would sit there and pretend that people accepted them, that they were allowed their chosen lives without consistent struggle. They would pretend nobody ever bullied them, that Loki was never tripped in the hallways or called mean names behind his back whenever Thor couldn't hear, that Sif was never forced to fight match after match in a way that few boys could manage without being able to stop for fear she would lose her place.

Neither Loki nor Sif ever spoke during these times. Simply they sat upon that wall, one foot apart, never closer, never further, and sometimes Loki would whisper things Sif could not understand in the language of the trees. Often it sounded like a beautiful song but she had never bothered to ask what the words meant. Because when they were up on that wall, nothing mattered. Not the names, not the bruises and most certainly not other people's opinions.

That wall was gone now. It had faded into the earth ages ago. Still, when Loki returned to Asgard, Sif was going to bring him back there, and try to whisper those same songs. As much as people claimed that this time thing would be made right with him, Sif could not quite believe that. And now that she turned those memories around she realized that what Loki had been singing had not been for him, but for her. It would only be fair to return the favor.

Sif was snapped from her thoughts at the arrival of Frigga and Odin. It was taking a fair bit of her strength not to glare at them for making yet another really stupid choice with Loki. Perhaps the Avengers would be able to fix Loki, she stole another glance at them. For all the skepticism that rose within her, there was a small flare of hope to accompany it. Maybe, just maybe this would turn out okay.

Frigga was standing just in front of Thor and Loki, they stood just a little ways off from the other Avengers. First she embraced Thor as Odin stood off to the side, she spoke as she hugged him. "Take care of yourself, and Loki. And please try to be more careful. When you come back next you should being that Jane girl with you. I would love to meet her." To which Thor just nodded, ducking his head in embarrassment at the sniggers from Tony. The queen then turned to Loki, crouching down next to him and pulling him into a far lighter hug, his bones still felt so breakable. "You be careful as well, and don't let him be running off to fight anything that moves. Remember to be good okay?" Loki took the doting a bit worse than Thor did, he nodded with the same semi blank stare.

After having given a kiss to each of their foreheads, Frigga pulled herself away and Odin stepped forward. He place a hand on Thor's shoulder and instructed him to keep Loki safe. To which Thor nodded.

The two of them stepped back to rejoin the group where they waited for a few moments before Heimdall started up the gate and the whole group was encased in light.

Loki forced his eyes open only to find that the world was, in fact still being rude and more importantly, not there. Taking its place was a spinning world of white. Snapping his eyes shut again, Loki brought up one head to scrub at them before he heard Thor ask him a question "Loki, are your eyes alright?"

Quickly Loki dropped the hand from his face and forced his eyes open once again, the world still quite bright but now coming into focus admittedly a little painfully. After a moment more he realized he hadn't answered Thor, something he quickly ratified. "I am fine. Thank you for your concern."

Thor should not be worrying about Loki, Thor had more important people to be worrying about. Loki was not an important person. The world finally complied and came fully into focus so Loki could take a look around at his surroundings. He was standing in front of what appeared to be a palace, but it was made of materials that Loki had never seen before. Unlike in Asgard where painting was only done for artwork, this house had been clearly painted a stark white. Rather than being built of cube shapes like almost everything in Asgard was, it seemed to be made of circles and to be frank, it reminded Loki more of a spaceship then a house.

"Come on in you guys!" Called out the one named Stark. If Loki remembered correctly it was his house, a theory affirmed by the way he strode into the building. The group slowly moved into the house from outside, Loki coming in last following Thor. He still wasn't fully accustomed to this new place and it was getting on his nerves.

'_Calm down. Showing fear means weakness and weakness is bad. You aren't allowed to be weak.'_

Carefully Loki schooled his face so that nothing of his thoughts bled through. Politely he listened as Stark gave the layout of the house, what caught his attention was what he said right after that "Oh and Loki, you will often hear a voice coming from the ceiling or walls or something. That's my AI, not somebody sitting in the room. He's like a person except he doesn't have a body or anything. Sort of, I mean he has a core but he doesn't have a human body. His name is JARVIS, his nice if not a bit snarky."

Loki stared at Stark blankly, while in his head he was running amuck with confusion. It took him a few more seconds to make the connection, he then asked. "Like a soul implant?"

Stark gave him a strange look, strange looks were never good. It meant that he had messed up. Again. To be honest Loki wasn't sure if he was good for much else. If the whispered conversation he had overheard that had happen between Frigga and Odin was anything to go by, he might not be.

So it came to great surprise, so great that for a second he lost his mask, when Stark said "Yeah. That sounds like it. I've never really studied those but I know the concept."

Loki gave him a shocked look for just a moment before replacing the mask, he really didn't know how to respond here. It was very rare that he was told he was right about something, and those times were only when Thor backed him up. Then Thor would take over the conversation. Luckily Stark decided that no more words on that matter were needed and instead bustled Loki and Thor down a hallway towards two rooms that stood opposite each other.

"You two will be staying here. I'm going to go figure out where to put everyone else, so get yourselves settled. If you have any questions just ask JARVIS."

Thor spoke the moment Stark left. "I am going to go put my things away. Will you be alright on your own?" To which Loki gave a nod and almost at the same time the two entered their separate rooms.

Loki took his backpack off, placing it carefully on the bed. It didn't have very much in it, clothing, a notebook, ink and a quill and most importantly, Loki's spell book.

Loki loved his spell book, because his spell book taught him Magic. Magic was the most amazing thing ever. Magic protected Loki, Magic kept Loki safe and Magic made him happy. When Loki was lonely because Thor had forgotten that he had promised to meet Loki so Loki could gather herbs in the woods, Magic was there to make a fake Thor. It wasn't as nice as the real Thor, but it made it hurt less.

When everyone forgot about his birthday again, Magic would allow him to have a fake party in his room. Magic would let him believe that Odin didn't think he was weak, the Frigga didn't look at him with that shame, the shame that meant that he wasn't as good as Thor. Magic let him pretend people cared about him.

Even if it hurt more later when he would lie in bed, fighting tears over whatever injury he had been given that day by sparring. It was worth it for those few moments of bliss. For those few moments he could pretend he was loved.

And the best part was Magic needed Loki. Loki gave Magic life, it was Loki whose energy supplied Magic's form. Nobody needed him, but Magic did. Some days it was the thing that kept him going, if he stopped, so would Magic. Loki would never let Magic down like that so he would keep going. No matter how much it hurt.

A/N:

I think Frozen may have more singing then it does talking. Also the people in it can teleport to a new location mid-note. No really, it creeps me out.

To explain, Loki stopped using his spell-book when he was about 6 in Midgard years, right now he is 5 in Midgard years. He switched to a different spell book after that.

Next up, Movie watching!


	6. The Sixth Root

Loki did not understand what was going on. Stark had gone into his room and dragged him from it, almost forcefully saying something about a 'movie night'. Were they dangerous? Was it a time of sorrow for lost ones? Were monsters going to come out? That had been what Loki thought. Now he really didn't know what to think. Stark had left him in front of a large, gray, slightly protruding device that looked like a wall. Something about it bothered Loki though; it just didn't seem ordinary enough to fit in with the other walls. Clearly there was something special about it.

Stark had said something about gathering the others, so clear it posed some sort of threat to them. Why else would he need Loki here? Quickly, Loki set up runes in a semi-circle around the object as best he could. It wasn't a very good force field, but he could improve it once he knew more about the threat. The moment he completed the runes, he activated them. A green force field shot up until it enclosed the strange wall in a half-sphere. Loki then proceeded to look around for some sort of weapon. For whatever reason his knife that he kept under his cloak was missing and he really didn't want to have to reload the ones in his shoes. Oh well, whatever was going to come out of that thing couldn't be any worse then the warriors in training at Asgard, and Loki had survived those guys. He could take this. Opening his mouth he started an incantation-

"Loki, don't do that. Don't do whatever you were about to do to the TV. It isn't dangerous. Damn it, I probably should've explained what that is." Stark yelled, freezing Loki in his tracks. Of course he had screwed up. Barely two hours in the realm and he had already managed to mess something up. Now Stark was going to get angry and hit him. Loki didn't like it when people hit him, but they only did it because he deserved it. What Loki wants doesn't matter, what matters is what is fair and it only makes sense to punish those who do wrong.

But Stark didn't hit Loki like he should've. Instead Stark scooped Loki up in his arms and pulled him away from the force field. "Are you alright, Kiddo?"

This was new. Loki wasn't quite sure what was going on. First Stark had said it wasn't dangerous and now Stark was asking if he was okay, as if there would have been something to harm him. Slowly he answered "I am not harmed."

"Good. That's good. What's the green thing?" Stark replied, and instead of placing Loki down now that he knew there was no danger, he hugged Loki just a bit closer. One of his arms was supporting Loki's legs and most of his weight, and his other arm was keeping Loki steady. Why would he continue being closer than necessary to Loki? Loki wanted very badly to ask him these things but Odin's words rang in his ears "You should not question other people's behavior." So Loki let it pass, and instead he responded to Stark's question.

"The green thing is a force field I made. I thought there was some sort of danger that would come from the object-wall. I'm very sorry that I did not wait and get a further grasp on the situation before acting, sir."

Now it was Tony's turn to be surprised. Damn, how did this little kid have enough magic to make that thing? It covered the whole TV and then some, and Tony did not have a small TV. Darn it, things were already off to a bad start. He should have told Loki what that thing was, not run off to alert Clint who was now getting Steve. Did Loki just call him sir? Did the universe just end? Why was the answer only yes to one of those?

Either way it wouldn't be good to keep Loki waiting for a response, so Tony answered him.

"You made that? I knew you had some magic, but I had no idea you could do that much. That's pretty impressive. And don't worry about it, I probably would have done something like that if I had been in your place. Also never call me sir again. Or anyone else on the team. My name's Tony, just in case nobody told you."

Wait. Did Star- Tony just call his magic impressive? That's not how it supposed to go. Tony should not be forgiving him for making such a huge and stupid mistake, he shouldn't be okay with Loki using magic. Tony should be yelling and shouting at Loki, Tony should be angry with Loki and calling him a disappointment. Tony should be telling him about how Thor would never do something this stupid. But he wasn't.

Loki had no idea how to respond to this new response to his actions. So rather then doing the right thing and thanking Tony for not hurting him, he did the stupid thing and just nodded, moments after he had to fight to stop from hitting himself for his stupidity. Why must he always mess these things up? Why couldn't he just be good? Tony had already been very, very kind and Loki was doing nothing, nothing but be bad. Like always. Before Loki could open his mouth and tell Tony how sorry he was and ask for forgiveness Tony began to talk.

"Alright good. Problem solved. The thing you put the force field around is called a TV. It shows images of various things by having tiny lights in different colors that form pictures. Sometimes they're from other places around the world but often times they show what we call a TV Show or a Movie. These are done by having people pretend to be other people like in a play, but put on this screen. They also use a lot of illusions to make it look like people are in danger or hurt or in love or other things like that but they aren't really. We're going to watch one of the new movies that came out. I've heard it's a bit silly, but I think you'll like it."

With that the inventor sat back on the couch, plopping Loki down right next to him.

Tony wasn't going to yell at Loki? Even though he had screwed up twice? It was then that Loki understood what was going on, Tony didn't understand how things worked. Tony thought that because Loki was Thor's brother, he wasn't allowed to yell or hit Loki. He didn't understand that Loki wasn't as good as Thor so it was okay to do those things. Loki needed to inform him of this. Right now. That would also be the reason Tony was keeping him close to him. Clearly Tony thought Loki was a better person then he was. If Loki didn't tell him the truth right now then he would be a liar for letting Tony believe this things.

But… It felt really nice to be so close to someone who was so warm, it felt nice to have someone close to him. Normally Loki wasn't supposed to go within about five feet of other people in Asgard, or they would push him away or look at him really nasty. They knew how bad he was, but Loki liked it when other people were close to him because he was so selfish. Because he was so greedy and ready to steal all the warmth from other people. That warmth he never seemed to have or his magic be able to bring him. So Loki did not speak up, he didn't pull away. Instead he was horrible and selfish and curled into Tony who put his arm around Loki, something he knew he didn't deserve. Yet for some reason he couldn't bring himself to protest it. Letting Tony's warmth surround him, Loki drank up the feeling as Tony was talking about aliens and a 'superman', even though Loki knew he was being rude, selfish, greedy and very, very bad. It was just too hard for him to concentrate on the words when he was being given this wonderful amazing warmth. Something he had not gotten for a very long time, and never for this long or from someone other than Thor.

It was then that Steve and Clint walked in. The two seemed to be having a conversation in a very active manner with their hands waving about, but both of them froze when the saw Loki and Tony. Loki felt guilt set over him, he had been caught and they must know the truth about how horrible he was. They were going to hate him and hurt him and send him back to Asgard, and Odin and Frigga would be disappointed, and he would be yelled at and hear them talking when they thought he couldn't hear about how it might be less trouble to send him away to live with the elves. But worst of all Thor would give him that hurt look that said Loki wasn't as good as he thought he was, because Thor thought Loki was good even though Loki was very bad. Loki was very bad, and horrible and mean and selfish and-

"Loki are you okay?" Tony was talking again. Tony sounded worried. Why would Tony be worried about Loki? Loki glanced around him only to realize that the force field from around the TV had vanished and instead was now formed in the shape of a bubble around Loki. Steve and Clint had moved and now were watching with worried expressions. As fast as he could Loki lowered the force field and opened his mouth to try to make some excuse or beg for forgiveness, but he couldn't because the moment the shield was down, Tony moved and wrapped him up in his arms. Murmuring soft words that sound like 'It's okay'. And Loki knew it was very, very wrong. Loki knew they should be hitting him for using Magic out of place and not submitting to punishment. But once more the warmth took over and with Steve's hand on his back he just couldn't bring himself to care.

_!%^* Eh, Like ten minute later *^%!_

Loki had calmed down enough so that he was positioned between Steve and Tony, Clint was sitting just a little distance off. There had been a silent agreement among the three that there was not to be any more arguing around Loki at all. Clearly the kid had issues that were triggered by Clint and Steve argument because things had been just fine before they had walked in. For now they were going to leave it alone and work on the more obvious affection starvation.

Seriously you'd think that the kid had never gotten a hug before. Tony had been worried that he might have melted into him the first time Tony had held him. They should probably warn Thor about that, not that Tony thought Thor would have any issues with giving Loki hugs.

Well, emotional issues aside, the movie had just loaded up.

Man of Steel, huh? Tony was doubting that he could measure up to their performance. Everyone knew Iron was better than Steel. He may have to sue them over the name if the movie sucked.

The movie opened up on an alien planet. Ugh, cliché much?

The comments began with Tony.

"Wait, how did that flying bug thing know where to go?"

But surprisingly it was Steve and Clint who continued them.

Clint was the first of the two to speak up,

"Can't he just call for the troops on the platform?"

"15 minutes. 15 minutes and we're still in backstory! Great. Just what I want from a movie."

Before Steve began to chime in.

"Do you really need to say 'I will find you' four times?"

"I know right! Also how did that father dude get that super heavy thing down there?"

"Wait so when he was a kid, he couldn't handle how much he would hear without locking himself in a closet, but now he can't hear that Lois is following him? At all?"

"So his dad gets to take care of him through magical space-time jumble but not his father?"

"A random guy on the street knows this totally obscure Pete Ross."

"Oh, I'm just going to let my father die even though I totally have the power to save him."

"Doesn't it take years of sunlight to give Krytonains powers?"

"Hmm, we have superpowers. Let's through each other into building even though we know it won't do anything!"

"Cool metal shards making… One of the most useless formations ever."

"Why is Lois falling? How is she not getting sucked into the black hole?"

"Dude, take the fight out of the city! Stop letting tons of innocents die!"

The moment Clint finished his sentence, Thor walked in. It took him a few moments to understand what was going on in the movie and a few more for him to notice Loki.

Tony had thought Thor would be happy to see that Loki was out of his room and hanging with everyone. He didn't think that Thor would snatch Loki off the couch and start yelling something that came out roughly as

"How could you even think of showing him something that violent?! Loki is only a child and such things are not for his eyes!"

Thor looked absolutely furious at them. For a few seconds Tony thought Thor was going to call out that it was some sort of prank but no such thing happened. Instead Thor had moved one hand across Loki's eyes to shield them from the movie. Speaking of Loki, he was looking very confused right now. Hadn't Sif said something about Loki having attend battles in real life? Like bloody Viking battles?

"Thor, calm down. He wasn't scared or anything, besides the movie is only like PG-13."

This seemed to set Thor off even further, he looked as if he was ready to punch someone, but that was a difficult feat to accomplish with Loki in his arms. Thor solved this problem by storming down the halls and bring Loki to his room. Carefully Thor placed Loki down on the bed and said in his calmest voice he could muster at the moment. "Loki, I want you to remain here for a bit. Just while I _talk_ to Tony and the others, Okay?"

Loki gave a nod. And with that, Thor stormed out of the room, Loki could already hear the yelling going on. He still couldn't hear very much. His ears were ringing from the shouting. What Loki did know was that he had been bad again. That Thor had found out that Loki was being Greedy and Bad, and now he was telling the others. They were going to hate him. Why could Loki just have been good?

There was no avoiding the punishment now. Instead Loki repacked his bags and went to sit on the bed. He also prepared a healing spell for himself, he was going to need it.

A/N:

I'm not sorry about all the angst. I do promise that things will get better but for now they're getting worse.

I've never seen Man of Steel but my Beta insisted on it. So I basically copied most of the comments from Cinema Sins, a youtuber who does movie reviews. I love him and you should go watch his videos.


	7. The Seventh Root

By the time the fight between Thor and Tony (with Steve trying to break it up and Clint avoiding the whole thing) was over, it had been close to an hour of non-stop yelling.

The entire time Loki had stayed in his room and Clint was starting to get worried. Surely he could hear at least a little of this mess, and giving the way he took Clint and Steve's heated debate, this probably wasn't going to help at all.

Clint should probably go check on him. To be honest he wasn't holding a grudge for what had happened. Unlike the others seemed to think, being under Loki's control hadn't really been that bad. From what little he could remember, Loki had ordered them to rest for at least eight hours, eat three healthy meals and basically take care of themselves. The guy had actually gotten books on what humans needed. Beyond that everything was blurry but when he had come out of it the only thing wrong with him was the throbbing headache from Nat, other then that he was fine. Even SHIELD med agreed with him.

Either way, the past is the past and as far as Clint was concerned Loki was an innocent kid. And innocent kids should not be put through this sort of stuff.

Clint gave the door a soft knock, he wasn't very good at knocking but he was getting better.

There was no answer so Clint tried again, this time much louder and much harder, and once more he got no answer. Now Clint was truly worried, he turned the door knob.

The moment Clint peered in the room he noticed two things, one Loki's bag was packed, and two Loki was huddled up in the corner in a ball, looking on the verge of tears and hyperventilating, he seemed to be looking at Clint with unseeing eyes.

Clint tried to move towards Loki only to stop the next moment when Loki flinched and tried to back further up into the wall. Right, that didn't seem to be helping. For a moment Clint considered calling in the others, but that would likely just make things worse. Crap, the archer was fairly sure that SHIELD had given him some training on this matter, he just couldn't remember it.

Well in any case standing here wasn't going to do anything, maybe talking to Loki would help? It was known to help with PTSD, why not whatever the heck was going on here. In a voice Clint hoped sounded comforting he began to speak.

"Loki? Can you hear me? I don't really know what's going on with you, but you're safe, alright. I'm going to come a bit closer, okay?"

True to his word Clint edged a foot or so closer and Loki's breathing got worse. Clint raised a hand to try and reach out towards him only to realize his mistake but moments later. This had been the worst reaction yet, Clint was sure Loki was going to pass out, his breath had reached impossible fast speeds his eyes were trained on Clint's hand for a few moments before Loki brought up his hands to shield his head.

Now that he had begun to listen, Clint could hear a faint chant coming from Loki repeating the same word over and over again.

"Sorry."

Finally the archer put all the pieces together, Loki was expecting Clint to hit him. He thought that he would hurt him. Why? Had Clint done something to make Loki think that? Could Loki have gotten his memories back and thought Clint would take revenge?

Clint had to push the theories out of his mind in order to focus on the problem at hand. Acting on an impulse Clint reached over and as gently as he could, he scooped Loki out of the corner and into his lap. The child was crying now but the archer held him through it, never moving from the awkward sitting position. Instead Clint rubbed a hand on his back and murmured a chant of his own.

"It's okay. You're safe here. I'm not going to hurt you."

Very slowly Loki seemed to calm down. Clint would guess that the two of them might have been there close to fifteen minutes before Loki's breathing had finally steadied and the two were in an almost silence. Okay, now what? Having never done this before Clint wasn't really sure of the protocol for asking 'Okay, who the hell did this to you and where may I find them?' to an abuse victim. Were you supposed to talk about it? Did you pretend it never happened? Are you allowed to leave them alone to beat the crap out of the person responsible?

Luckily for Clint, Loki chose that moment to start talking. Unluckily for Clint, he was stuttering and trying to apologize.

"I-I'm s-sorry sir. I-I di-didn't me-ean to im-pose on y-you. T-thi-is is al-ll m-y-y fa-a-ult. I-I'm s-s-sorr-y-y for-r bein-ng gree-ed-y-y and self-fish and b-bad. P-ple-ease forgive m-e. I pr-omise I-I'll never d-do it a-again."

Now it was Clint's turn for wide eyes, his shock at what Loki was saying was enough to withhold any sort of response from him until Loki had finished speaking. Even after he had finished it took a few seconds for Clint to not start demanding names. Loki began to pull away, one arm was moving up to try and cover his face in a gesture of self-defense. Damn it, whoever had messed this kid up had done it pretty stinking well, because even after that, Loki still thought Clint would hit him.

Moving slowly so as not to scar him, Clint pulled Loki back into the hug. In as soft a voice as he could muster at the moment the archer began to talk to him again.

"Loki, it's okay. You aren't greedy or selfish and you didn't do anything wrong. You aren't in trouble and nobody is going to hurt you. It's okay."

Clint had to repeat those last words a few times aloud, because even if he wasn't able to convince himself of it, doesn't mean he can't try with Loki.

Speaking of the tyke, he seemed to have calmed down a fair bit, his eyes were drooping down and he was clearly fighting to stay awake. When had the kid last slept? Not since he had gotten here from Asgard and during almost the entire stay in Asgard he hadn't seen him get even a moment's rest after having woken up from his nap with Thor. That had been more than 18 hours ago and Clint was pretty sure that little kids needed lots of sleep.

Little kids also needed to not be showing signs of being abused, but hey, one thing at a time.

Clint gently moved the now almost asleep Loki onto the bed and tucked him in. It only took a few moments for Loki to fall asleep, a troubled look settled on his face.

It took four minutes for Clint to gain enough self-restraint to trust himself to walk out of the room and not go on a killing spree in Asgard. It took twelve minutes for Clint to feel he was able to leave Loki alone in the room. It took half an hour for him to actually do it.

When he did he walked in a sort of calm before the storm manner. Straight down the hallway and into the living room where Bruce, Thor, Steve and Tony were now all sitting. (Nat was off on a mission.) They turned to him when he walked in, even Thor could tell something was wrong. It was Tony who finally asked.

"So… Where the hell have you been for like the past hour?"

A/N:

Alright. That's as far as I'm writing for now. Thank you to all the lovely people who have been reviewing and commenting for me on both of these sites.

Please note that this is going to get worse, then better, then worse again. But I promise this will have an at least sort of happy ending. It will depend on whose side you hear.

This started out as a one shot. Then got just a little bit longer. And now here I am at chapter 7 barely halfway through if that.


	8. The Eighth Root

"Oh not much. I just thought that someone should check up on Loki, ya'know the kid having issues with people fighting and all that. He's fine by the way, thanks to everyone else checking in. I only found him curled up in a ball at the corner of his room hyperventilating and shaking like a leaf in a tornado. So not a problem. I guess it might be a little bad that I couldn't move towards him or move my hand in an upwards motion without him acting like I was planning on beating him. It only took like fifteen minutes for him to calm down enough to talk to me." Clint's voice was barely above a whisper, but his tone was sharp enough to slice air. The four men sitting around the table's eyes were widening, their faces expressing growing horror as Clint continued.

"He was stuttering and stuff which did make it hard to understand, and I what I could make out didn't really make sense. Loki kept going on about how he was sorry and then stuff about how he was greedy or whatever. I think he may have gotten a bit wound up over the whole shouting match between you two here."

Clint gave a flick of his hand towards Tony and Thor, both of who got separate looks on their faces. Tony had the decency to look somewhat ashamed, at least ashamed by Tony's standards. On the other hand Thor looked angry, at whom or what Clint couldn't be sure. So Clint finished up, the sarcasm still dripping from his voice.

"Yeah, so long story short, I'm currently holding myself back from a killing spree in Asgard as a means of deal with whatever jerks thought that they could get away with beating a child."

The volume of Clint's voice stayed the same but he might have well shouted the last sentence for it would have not had any more of an effect. It took a lot to break through Clint's training, never let anyone in, never let anyone know your real emotions. But this was too much for him. Maybe it was that hurting a child was one of the lowest, rottenest actions he knew, and that was saying something. However, if Clint were to take a moment to examine his rage, and if he was to be honest with himself, it was because of how close to home seeing Loki like that had struck.

Clint had not been raised in the best of homes to say the least, his parents had gotten drunk and beaten him at times. At the circus it wasn't much better, if anything, it was worse. Whenever someone had an issue they knew they take it out on him, everyone always had. Those eyes he had seen in Loki were the same eyes he had seen reflected in Coulson's sunglasses that day that he had found him. Except they weren't the same, in Clint's eyes, there had been the light of hope, no matter how faint it had been. In Loki's, there was nothing but a resigned acceptance and fear, and it scared Clint. Because Clint had been through Hell in his life, it was hard to imagine what Loki must have been through.

There were a few moments of silence. Nobody could speak. Now to be fair, Clint was still having issues getting a grasp on the whole thing himself, and he had been there when it happened. Steve did not appear to be doing so well, it was hardly a hidden fact that Steve's own childhood was not the best. His face was contorted and his eyes held a sadness that Clint hated to see there.

At least Bruce seemed to be doing a little better; he wasn't green and giant anyway. It was always hard to read that man with the amount of control he had over his emotions. Clint didn't know very much about his past, but he did know one thing. It is exceedingly rare for anyone to get into the hero business without having had a bad childhood. He was doubtful that Bruce was an exception.

Tony was a different matter altogether; he was looking as if he had just shot someone for the first time. It was most likely a mix of guilt from being the cause of the panic attack and horror that it had happened in the first place. Given that Clint was having similar feelings, it wasn't hard for him to understand where Tony was coming from. Clint had read his files, even the little personal note from Fury that had only been viewable to him and 'Tasha. The note had hinted that Howard may not have been the best of fathers.

It was Thor whose reaction surprised Clint the most, Clint had expected Thor to be ashamed and sad and vow to make things better. He was not expecting Thor to shout. Thor's voice carried something between confusion, desperation and defensive anger.

"You are lying! There is not a soul in Asgard who would do harm to a child no matter what they may have done. They are good people and I do not know what has gotten into you but I refuse to stand here and allow you to make such horrid accusations."

As he spoke the thunder god pushed the table away from his chair, stood, and stormed down the hallway, not to Loki's room, but to his own.

"He took that well." Tony's comment lacked his normal sarcastic tone. It sounding more like a reflex than anything else.

Bruce was the one to rationalize Thor's actions. "Give him some time, odds are that Thor's just in denial. If I were him, I wouldn't want to accept that a large part of my childhood had been a lie."

This was met with nods from around the room. This was quickly followed by an awkward silence. No one was sure of what to do next, Clint was still playing with the idea of asking Loki for names, somehow he didn't feel like that would go over well.

It was Tony who finally broke the silence.

"Well, I've got no clue whatsoever on how to handle this, so I'm going to the lab to figure it out. JARVIS, could you please prepare a set of research and instructions for me on the way there?"

The walls whirred for a moment before the reply came. "Of course, Sir."

_/%* With Loki *%/_

Loki had been snapped awake from his sleep by Thor shouting. It took him only moments to realize that he had managed to screw up again. Not only had he been greedy and stolen Hawkeye's warmth and spoken to someone who wasn't one of _THEM_ about the pain, but Loki had fallen asleep in the lull of Hawkeye's warmth. He had fallen asleep when someone else had been talking to him. Loki's despair at how absolutely awful his behavior only grew as he recalled his tears, showing weakness in front of someone. As he looked over the timespan of his stay here he only got more and more worried. How stupid could he be?!

Well, there was no taking it back now, what was done was done but from now on, Loki was going to be perfect. No more stupid mistakes and no more being greedy. Maybe if Loki could pull his act together and be one hundred percent perfect, they wouldn't break too many of his bones. Just maybe when they sent him back to Asgard, Odin would only get mostly drunk and would only yell at Loki. Not punish him with more blows and break more of his bones. It was a longshot and not a fate Loki should be hoping for as he knew it would only bring him more pain in the long run, but for now it made things feel a little better.

'_Maybe they won't hurt you at all. Maybe Hawkeye wasn't lying last night. May-'_

Loki quickly shut off that line of thought. Too many times had he trusted in the words of others for him to fall for that again. Clearly Hawkeye had been testing him on how easy it was for him to lower his guard. Because Loki knew how this worked, everything was a test or a trick to make the punishment hurt more. There was no one and never would be anyone who would want to be around Loki. He was a horrible, ugly, lying, magic-using trickster. The only person who had liked him was Thor, and Thor had gotten smarter and stopped liking Loki a little bit ago. Before Sif and the others, Thor had liked Loki because he didn't know that there were so many others who were much more worthy of being liked.

Thor hadn't know how awful Loki was. Even the monstrous frost giants were more likable than Loki. That was why Thor never commented on the bruises or noticed when Loki stopped eating for spans of time because he wasn't able to. It was why Frigga pretended not to hear Loki's screams of pain when Odin was drunk and hurting him again. The reason that the other kids punched him and called him mean names and the reason that adults would hurt him.

And Loki would love to believe that it the Avengers wouldn't hurt him, but he had heard it before and it always ended up the same way. With Loki laying broken on the floor fighting tears. Maybe the Avengers really didn't mean to harm him yet, but they would see the real him soon enough, and then they would hurt him like everyone else.

Loki would like to believe that they wouldn't hurt him, but he was much too smart for that.

A/N:

Oh, I'm sorry, were you having a nice day with happy little rainbows? Let me cover that in angst and Loki feels. I'm kidding, I'm not sorry at all. I hope you guys enjoyed and thank you again for the awesome comments and review's I've been getting.

I like to hide little puns throughout these. Go see how many you can find in each chapter.

Spring break is coming up, updates will either be happening a lot or a little over the next week or so, it depends on how much homework I end up with. Hopefully I'll be able to write 3-4 chapters, but no promises.

Also in case anyone is wondering, Clint introduced himself to Loki as Hawkeye so that's what Loki calls him.


	9. The Ninth Root

_/^*% With Thor %*^/_

It could not be true. It was the only thought Thor could muster at the moment. Clint must be wrong, he must have made a mistake. Perhaps Loki had been waking up from some sort of nightmare? Or maybe he had just had too long of a day and had been slipping in and out of a bad daydream. It could even be that he was reacting to some sort of odd food in Midgard. While Thor was sure that his friends here would never harm Loki on purpose, very little was known about how Midgardian food might affect his Frost Giant form.

Putting aside what had really happened, Thor could say one thing for sure. There was no way that anyone in Asgard would harm a child. Thor had grown up knowing almost everyone, even the drunks at the bar were kind people to a child. As for the other children, most of them dreamed of being great heroes, like Thor did. Many were his friends and all he knew well enough to say that none of them would ever stoop to the level of harming one another outside of a spar or fair fight. And Thor was sure that none of them would ever attack his little brother, Loki never started fights or argued with anyone when they were little.

Actually now that Thor gave it some thought, up until the point where the whole mess began, Loki almost never argued with anyone. Those few times he did, he had been right. On the few times Loki would protest someone else's argument, he would almost always back down at the first glare. Thor had thought before that his brother just did not enjoy fighting but what if it were something more?

Looking back, Thor started to see more and more signs that he did not want to see. Those bruises that Loki would always have, whenever Thor would ask, Loki would mumble something about getting beaten in a spar or being too clumsy on a staircase. The handful of times that Loki would turn up at Thor's room asking to be let in, acting as if the whole of Hell was at his heels.

Even more worrying was those times when Thor would not be able to find Loki at all. Sometimes his brother would just up and leave without ever giving an explanation. At first Thor would worry endlessly at these times but once it had happened often enough, he stopped worrying and decided that Loki was plenty capable in the art of taking care of himself.

No matter how much Thor didn't want it to be true, the more thought he put into it, the more he realized that the only answer was that Clint was in fact, right.

Thor was reeling from this new development as he began to discover how deep this pain traveled. If people in Asgard had been hurting Loki, Heimdall would have known about it. Heimdall was required to speak to Odin about any threats to Asgard or to an Asgardian, so Odin must have known about all of this. To be honest, it didn't surprise Thor that much anymore, that his father would allow such a thing to continue. But if it had happened for so long, surely Frigga would have found out about it, and it hurt Thor far deeper than he ever thought he could be, to know that she would stand for such a thing.

Laying on his bed, Thor looked up at the ceiling as if it was to give him some answer to all of this. It

should come as no shock to anyone that the ceiling was of very little help.

_/^*% With Bruce%*^/_

So far the other guy had been fairly quiet throughout Bruce's inner turmoil. Even the Hulk could tell the difference between a danger that he could fight and a sadness he could only worsen. Despite what military reports will say, the Hulk had yet to emerge when there wasn't some physical threat to Bruce. Though at this point Bruce may or may not have already weighed the option of letting the Hulk have a field day in Asgard. The result may or may not have been for that plan.

While that may make him feel better, it sure as hell wasn't going to do anything for Loki. Oddly enough, Loki was the current conversation going around the table. Clint sat opposite him, Tony was to his right with Steve sitting to his left with his head leaning on his hands. It was Clint who finally summarized their debate in such a manner that no one could find a reason to protest it.

"Right, so the plan is basically to get the kid as much physical contact as possible, talk to Thor about the whole Asgard thing, try to get some names and not fight anywhere near the kid?"

One round of nods was all it took for the matter. What would be done to any names that they got was a different matter that was to be discussed later. A somber silence followed the nods until Bruce couldn't take it anymore and spoke up.

"Why don't I go check on him? Just to be safe?"

Not waiting for the nod, Bruce fled down the hallway towards Loki's room. As softly as he could he pushed open the door only to find Loki wide awake on his bed. It took Loki a few moments to notice Bruce's presence, he startled for a moment before regaining his control and relaxing. Bruce stood awkwardly in the door for a few moments before he spoke up.

"Hey, I was just stopping by to check in on you. Are you doing alright? I thought that you'd still be asleep."

Loki quickly jumped up from his bed and tried to form some sort of apology for his actions over the last day. But before he could do anything of the sort Bruce who had figured out what he was going to say, moved across the room and scooped Loki into his arms. The boy didn't really know how to react to this, Bruce's hands were soft and gentle as he pulled Loki closer to him for a strand of seconds.

With the carefulness that came from lots of experience treating children, Bruce put Loki down onto the bed, pulling the covers back with his hand that was not supporting the very light bulk of Loki's weight. (This was something he took note of, Loki felt far to light in his hands.) The doctor in Bruce could tell that Loki was suffering from a lack of sleep and he would be damned if he wasn't going to do his best to fix it. Without allowing Loki time to question any of this, Bruce leant down and placed a kiss on the little trickster's forehead.

A/N:

I didn't mean to start writing this so soon after the last update but I couldn't help myself. You guys left me so many comments that got me thinking about the story. I'm trying to respond to them all but I'm having trouble with not giving out spoilers when doing so.

To explain a bit more, Thor had no idea about Loki's abuse. Everything was kept very well hidden from him. So for him to find out that all these people that he thought were kind and caring and loving were really quite two-faced was very hard for him. Imagine if you found that everyone you grew up with was a bully or abuser, it would not be easy to go through. So please cut him some slack here, he really does love Loki and would never do anything to hurt him.

Also in response to those who would like me to write longer updates, I wish I could but during the school week I really can't. On the weekends and over break I will try to make these longer.


	10. The Tenth Root

Loki gave Bruce a puzzled look. Why had he just done that to him? Was it some sort of spell? Loki wanted very badly to ask what he had just done, but two factors were preventing him from doing that. Firstly and most importantly, it would be very rude to question someone's actions so long as those action were not leading to the possible harm of important people. The list of important people does not include Loki. The second factor was that the monster known as sleep was crawling up Loki's body and hindering his mind. Sleep was a very bad thing and Loki did not like it one bit, he didn't understand how some people could call sleep an escape, for Loki it forced him to go over all the bad memories again and again.

Bruce was smart though and noticed Loki's puzzlement. He gave Loki a puzzled look in return. Maybe it was a Midgardian ritual, one that he should have known beforehand. The look of puzzlement flew back to Loki's face when rather than hitting him, Bruce's face took on an almost convincing kind look and instead of yelling at Loki said, "You know that you're allow to ask questions right? I don't know what is a thing and what is not a thing, on Asgard. But on earth, it's a sort of sweet dreams thing. Do you ever do anything like that on Asgard?"

His brow furrowed, Loki knew what it meant, what he wanted to know is why Banner was doing it to him. Loki understood what a gesture of affection was, and he understood very clearly that they were not meant for him. If someone directed them at him, they were either Thor, new, or trying to trick him. Well, Banner had given him permission to ask questions, so maybe it wouldn't get him hurt too badly? It took Loki a few seconds to work up the courage, but finally he asked his question, with his eyes fixed on his shoulder, the closest he could get to the floor in his position.

"I-I understand what it means. I've h-heard about it in Asgard from o-other kids. I j-just don't und-derstand why you did it t-too me."

Once more the confusion flew from Loki and back to Bruce.

"Well why wouldn't I do it to you? I want you to have sweet dreams. Didn't Frigga ever do it to you when she tucked you in?"

This caused Loki to pull back a little ways, something that could have been a slight look of defeated resentment. He didn't answer this time.

"She did tuck you in, right?"

It was a couple of seconds before Loki answered Bruce. His voice was shy and he barely kept himself from stuttering.

"Thor and I sleep in different rooms, and she had to be sure he got into bed. She knew I would be fine, I mean, I didn't see her that much anyways. I don't need anyone to tuck me in. I can take care of myself. And if I ever get really lonely I can just make an illusion."

This revelation was one part horrifying and one part saddening to Bruce. He had still had some hope for Frigga. Said hope was crushed by Loki's statement. Frigga was clearly not the person that Thor had made her out to be. He already knew that Odin was a jerk, that much had been clear. Bruce took a few moments to run over his options, none looked too good, but he already knew which one he had to pick. It was the same choice that had been made for him when he had been rescued from his father.

There wasn't going to be any dodging around the subject, Bruce needed to know who had done this to Loki. The only way to get those names would be to ask him. As much as Bruce wanted to let the problem sit until some healing had happened, odds were not high that Loki and Thor would be staying here long enough to get through to Loki, so it would be best if they knew who Thor should be allowed to beat the crap out of. With their help, of course.

The scientist pulled himself together and looked down at the child god, it took him a few extra moments before he finally managed to ask Loki what was pestering the forefront of his mind.

"Loki, I don't want to have to ask you about this so soon, but I-we need to know who was hurting you. Clint told me what he knows and we know that at least one person if not more is hurting you. We just don't know who. If you can tell us, we can help a lot more, I promise that we'll protect you from those people."

As he spoke Bruce made the choice to not mention Frigga or Odin. He wasn't sure how that would go over at this point, he didn't even know where they stood on the issue.

Now it was Loki's turn to pause at Bruce's speech. Chancing an out of line glance at Bruce's face he found that he couldn't see anything but honesty and worry. He was good at his job, to try and convince Loki that he was telling the truth and get him to go against what they had told him. They were all really good at this game.

Loki knew that it was all just a test, that if he told Bruce he would fail and be punished, but for a moment he allowed himself to hope. To hope that Bruce wasn't lying, that things would get better and that moment turned into a few seconds, and those few seconds morphed into a full minute of hope. All the while Loki tried to force it down and shut it out, but no matter what he did, that dangerous little voice in the back of his head was asking him the same question over and over.

'_What do you have left to lose?'_

And no matter how hard Loki tried, he couldn't find a good answer.

A/N:

Short chapter is short for reasons of I'm sleep and cliffhangers.

If I fail in my goal of getting at least 4 chapters out over break, it will be because of my cat. Every time I try to write she curls up on my arms and stretches out onto my keyboard. I swear she does it on purpose.


	11. Does Anyone Read Chapter Titles?

"Alright."

He had settled himself on this matter, there was no going back on it now. Thor sat up from his bed. No longer would he be fooled by his illusions of who he had thought people were. From now on Thor was going to find out the truth, he wasn't going to be fooled by anyone's lies.

If all this was true, it meant that everybody he knew could have had a hand in it. The only people he still trusted were his companions on Midgard, Loki and Sif. Out of everyone, Thor knew Sif would not have taken part in things such as this. She had faced too much bullying, even with his protection to put that same burden on another.

Putting those few people aside, everyone else in Asgard was under his suspicion, even his own mother and father. Scratch that, especially his own mother and father. This was not going to be easy but Thor was going to forget all of them as friends until he knew for a fact that they had done Loki no harm as a child. Because out of everyone in all the nine realms, Loki mattered more. Thor was done with always putting Loki behind others, from now on, Loki was more important than anyone else. Thor was never going to let his little brother down again.

Thor stood from his bed and began to pace. The earliest he could be back in Asgard would be in the morning. Right now he could get a message to Heimdall, Loki would stay here and he would return. He would demand the truth in full from Frigga and Odin. Also it would be wise to speak to Heimdall and Sif on the matter, both should have insight on the issue. All he would need to do was tell the other avengers and give Loki an excuse. Not a lie, just a half truth. Thor would not be telling Loki anymore lies.

_/*% This is a Line Break %*/_

"Okay. I can this. I mean, It's for the best."

This was it, he was going to do this. He pulled himself into a sitting position and looked at the man sitting above him. Nothing was going to get better if he didn't. Might as well give it a shot.

"I'm gonna go talk to the kid. Bruce is taking way too long. Also what is with you and heights? I mean how are you even comfortable up there, and why? The couch is right there. I'm adding perches for you in the new building. No take backs, I already text Pepper. Okay, maybe not. JARVIS, text Pepper the thing I just said I texted her."

A mildly British mechanical voice respond before Clint could.

"Already done, Sir."

Clint look disgruntled, mostly for the sake of look disgruntled. In truth he was more than happy to have perches. Everyone in the circus who tried to pick on him had sucked at climbing, so heights were pretty much the only place he could be safe. The habit stuck. 'Tasha and Phil were the only ones who knew that he rarely slept on a bed or on the ground.

"I like heights, it's safer and I can keep an eye on things. People can't sneak up on me and I don't have to worry about anyone noticing me if they break in. Trust me, everyone looks left and everyone checks behind themselves but nobody ever bothers to look up unless there's a shadow on the moon or something like that."

Tony gave him an eye roll in return. He didn't really care either way, odds are Clint had a screwed up past like everyone else here. But that doesn't mean he'll stop arguing. The day he does that is a going a cold day in hell. Or hel. Whatever.

"Yeah, I get that when you're busy being a super-secret agent that stuff's probably pretty smart, but dude, nobody is coming to stab you in my house. J would figure that stuff out waaay before you did. Look, you can play Batman all you want. I'm going to check on Loki and Brucie."

And with that, Tony rolled off the couch and half walked, half stumbled out the doorway and in the rough direction of Loki's room. He almost looked drunk. In reality he had hit his leg in the lab and was refusing to seek any sort of medical attention for it. Not that Clint was any better about med, everyone there is a creepy sadist. Natasha would stand by him about that.

_/%&* This is ANOTHER Line Break *&%/_

"O-okay."

He had nothing left to lose here. Even when this whole thing blew up, even when everything started to go bad again. It would be worth it for that feeling of hope, almost like the feeling of his illusions of his family. Loki took in a deep breath and took a few moments to prepare for the pain.

"How-w Sh-hould I-I tell y-you?"

No pain came at first, Banner was making sure that he wasn't planning on giving him false names. The others would have just beaten him by now, it was nice to be hurt by someone a bit cleverer. Instead Banner moved one of his hands into Loki's hair which he pushed out of his eyes and gave him a soft smile. He gave Loki a few moments to even out his breathing before answering him.

"However you want. I understand that this is going to be hard and that you'll be frightened but I promise nothing bad is going to happen, okay?"

The little trickster gave him a nod and took a few more deep breaths before he began.

"I-I don't know all the names, sometimes it's just people who are drunk and angry. M-most of the p-people who hurt m-me are a-adults. The o-other kids don-n't do much, j-just a push or tripping me. And name-c-calling, but t-that doesn't m-matter."

Loki took in another breath, and Bruce struggled to remain calm and not just smother Loki in a hug. It was a few moments before he continued.

"O-odin hits me sometimes, not a lot, but sometimes when-n I've-e bee-en real-lly disappointing. H-he g-gets d-drunk and y-yells. Mother, Frigga n-never h-hits me b-but s-she d-doesn't stop h-him."

Loki took a few more deep breaths before he began listing names, the longer the list got, the less Bruce could make the names out and the more he was reconsidering allowing the other guy a day in Asgard.

Finally the words tumbling out of Loki's mouth slowed and stopped, the tears that had started at about the fifth name did not, nor did his legs unfurl from the tight hug he had pulled them up into. Bruce waited until Loki was finally silent before he stopped fighting the urge and just wrapped the kid in in his arms with no plans of letting him leave, like ever.

The kid was shivering and staring blankly ahead, but Bruce did not care, at the moment, he was more worried about the way Loki flinched when Bruce squeezed him just a bit tighter. The hug was soft and gentle and to be honest it could have lasted for hours. If the door hadn't banged open, smacking into the wall.

A/N:

:p

I'm such a tease.

Two chapters in one day though, that's good. Right?

My cat stopped bothering me. Now it's my puppies, both of them are squabbling on my lap. They open their jaws as wide as they can and shake their heads at each other while whining. I don't understand it.

My animals have a conspiracy to keep me from writing, I swear.

I am so tired right now.


	12. The Twelfth Root

/ Side note, It's close to midnight but the lights are at 50%. /

A hard to make out form fell through the doorway. For a moment Bruce thought the person was dead and he quickly scrambled off the bed, fighting to keep the other guy under wraps. It wasn't until the body called out, "I'm okay. I was just testing gravity. Guess what? It's still working." At which point the other guy stopped freaking out and Bruce had to fight laughter as he reached down and helped Tony up off the floor where he had landed. There was still a chuckle hiding in his voice when he spoke to Tony.

"Well, that's nice to know, I thought it had stopped. I hope you don't mind me asking, but why did you feel the need to conduct that test here?"

Behind the two Loki had gained wide eyes. Tony accepted Bruce's hand and the moment he was up, plopped himself on the bed while took a quick look at the kid to try check on him. It only took Tony's brain 240 milliseconds to process Loki's state of being and another 260 to figure out what to do about it. He sent a quick questioning glance to Bruce whose face darkened before shaking his head. Not going to talk about it here then.

Loki was growing more than a little worried about what was going on. Was gravity commonly known to malfunction here? Why would someone need to test it? Was Tony okay? His mind had completely snapped away from his past, and now he was more worried about Tony's clearly injured leg. He wasn't sure if Tony was aware of it, but blood was trickling down onto the floor. It was at that point that Magic gave Loki a little jolt to remind him that he had his healing Magic ready and at his command, sure he was going to need it in a minute because he had already given Bruce the names, but Loki had stolen Tony's warmth. How would it be fair if Loki didn't help him?

Carefully but quickly, Loki moved down the bed and before Tony could stop him, he placed his hands on Tony's hurt leg. A green glow cascaded from Loki's fingers, spreading out in leaps and bounds. Magic flowed through Loki's hands and into the flesh before him. The wound was worse than Loki had thought so he poured more energy into the Magic and the glow grow brighter. Both Bruce and Tony were spell-bound by the green aurora, they had known that Loki was brilliant with magic, but they had not been told that he was able to use it at such a young age.

Finally the leg was healed and Loki called his Magic back into his hands, he then pulled his hands away and firmly fixed his eyes on the blanket that covered his bed. Loki knew that he wasn't supposed to use Magic where others could see it, but he was willing to accept whatever punishment for his actions.

Once more neither man did what Loki had expected them to. Rather than hurt him like they were supposed to, they remained silent for a couple of seconds before Tony asked,

"How did you do that? I mean, I get the magic stuff, but my leg is completely healed, no pain at all."

To prove his point, Tony twisted inwards towards him and then stretched it back out again. Not even a flinch. That sort of recovery would have taken about two weeks for a normal person. Three for Tony because he wouldn't ever consent to medical care or resting it. Bruce was thoroughly shocked by this revelation, Loki didn't look as if he could be any more then seven, how could he have gotten so good at healing?

After giving his question a moment's thought, Bruce decided that he didn't want to know the answer to that one. He was already low enough on reasons not to let the other guy out, why add more?

Loki answered Tony's question after a moment.

"Magic likes m-me a lot. When I a-ask it to do something, i-it normally d-does it. I-I've healed w-worse injuries b-before."

They didn't need to know that he had almost always used Magic on himself when it was the healing sort. But the Magic had used most of his energy and he hadn't had much to begin with, so as Loki tried to move away from Tony, he ended up not being able to stay awake and collapsing into Tony's lap.

Bruce lunged forward on instinct but Tony had already caught him. As fast as he could Bruce felt at Loki's neck for a pulse, he breathed a sigh of relief as he found a pulse beating slowly, but steadily.

Moving his arms so that they cradled Loki, Tony shifted Loki so that he could stand up. Dodging around Tony, Bruce pulled back the covers and Tony set the kid down on the bed. They both took a moment to just be absolutely sure the kid was breathing normally before Tony pulled the blankets back over Loki.

The two of them shared a look, Bruce jerked his head towards the door and Tony gave him a nod. They were going to be needing to have a longer talk with the team. It took them a full minute to exit the room silently and make it down the hallway so they had no chance of being overheard. Tony raised his eyebrow at Bruce, wordless asking him what had happened.

Heaving a sigh, Bruce took a few moments to collect his thoughts before he began repeating everything Loki had told him to Tony, he tried to get the names right but to be honest the list was so long he couldn't recall them all.

By the end of it, Tony looked like he might punch someone. Bruce looked as if he was ready to do the same. A silence stretched between the two of them that lasted only about a minute yet seemed to span on for hours. It was Tony who finally broke it.

"Sooo, is a beating-the-crap-out-of-people spree out of the question right now? 'Cause I could totally go for that. Actually no, let's get the others in on it first. It wouldn't be very fair if we didn't. Besides I want to see what Steve does to them."

Now the universe has this funny little thing it does where whenever you start talking about someone they magically appear behind you. Right now was no exception.

"See what I do to who?"

A/N:

We're back to being short again.

Animals are still harassing me while I attempt to write. The cat has been pacified with a cardboard box but the dogs still insist upon laying on my chest as I get this down. I'm working on a bribe of peanut butter cookies.


	13. The Thirteenth Root

Both Tony and Bruce whirled around to find that Steve was standing right behind them, in classic form. His arms were crossed over his chest and he had that look on his face that basically said 'whatever you are doing I disapprove of. '. Tony really hated that face, he had seen it way to many times in his life. Thanks to whatever non-child abusing deities were out there (So basically, none of them), Bruce answered before he could.

"I just had a chat with Loki, he's asleep now. Long story short, Odin is an abusive jerk, I have a list of names that I am hoping beyond hope that JARVIS recorded because it was so flipping long I can't remember them all, of people that are now featured on my to-punch list, and we need to talk to Thor. Also the kid managed to heal Tony's leg. And nobody is asking him where he got that good at healing magic, because me turning green while not in Asgard isn't going to help anyone. Would you please go get Thor? Tony and I are going to go to the living room nearest to here where Clint is. Thank you, Steve."

Before Steve had time to make any comments on any of this, Bruce grabbed Tony by the sleeve and pulled him down the hallway and out of sight. Tony made no effort to resist mainly because he was so not going to be the one to tell Thor his father was abusive and his mother was a horrible person. He was only so suicidal, thank you very much.

"Bu- Wait, what? How cou-. I'm not goi-. Well okay then."

Staring at the empty space that had possessed two men mere seconds earlier, Steve sighed and turned to walk down the short stretch of hallway towards the door. Just as Steve went to open it, Thor flung it open from the inside already in mid-stride. Blond met blond and the two of them went crashing to the floor, in a heap of oddly colored outfits and exaggerated muscles. It took the both of them a fair few seconds to separate and pull themselves off the floor. They took a glance at each other both reading that the other had news, both decided that what they had to say was more important, but Steve was polite enough to allow Thor to go first.

"I'm going to Asgard to get the truth from Odin and Frigga about what has really happened to Loki."

"No need. Good news, apparently Bruce managed to get Loki to talk to him and JARVIS has a list of names. Bad news, Odin's name is on said list. I don't know much beyond that, but we're supposed to meet in the living room. The others are already there."

Thor took the news a lot better than Steve thought he would, actually he took it really well. There was no more shouting, no denials, just this sort of sad acceptance. It would seem Thor had used his time to himself wisely. Rather than any of the aforementioned options, the god of thunder just gave Steve a nod, that same look on his face.

Without another word spoken, the two of them turned and walked toward where the others were waiting for them. Steve was curious about how the others felt on a beating-the-crap-out-of-people spree.

/ Meeting Time! /

As luck would have it, JARVIS did record the conversation, he also had taken the names, placed them in a text list formatted and cross referenced various Norse mythology so as to properly distingue the names that had come out towards the tail end of the talk and made back ups of said list in multiply locations. All of that was normal on the levels of what Tony expected from JARVIS, what was going above and beyond was then tracking down every reference of said figures, adding that to the data he had gathered during Tony's stay in Asgard and compiling a list of every locatable weakness of said people, on said list.

It was times like this that Steve had to work to convince himself that JARVIS was in fact a machine, and that had not been satisfaction in his voice when he presented said lists to Tony. He still held some doubts.

It had taken a bit, but finally everyone in the room was up to speed on the current situation with Loki. Nobody was particularly liking it, but they had to make the best possible choice. Tony spoke up after a bit, a plan formulating in his head as he talked.

"Well, I think everyone in this room knows one thing for sure, he is not going back to Asgard. I will not be Dumbledore and send the kid back to live with people who are known abusers. I don't care if they've reformed or whatever BS, one it's only a matter of time before things go right back to the way they were, and two, even if they did everything perfectly it would be nothing but panic attacks for the kid. I did the reading, even just being near an abusive figure can set victims off, especially children. So what I'm not seeing, is why he can't stay here, like forever. I'm more than happy to have the two of you over and I've opened my doors to the other Avengers as well. None of us have any clue how to raise a kid, but we're doing a hell of a better job than Asgard."

This was met with a round of nods. After that nobody was really sure what else was to be said, until Clint spoke up.

"We could ask Coulson about what we could do to help him as well. He's really good with kids and this sort of stuff."

Another set of nods. When it came to people they could trust about this, Coulson was at the top of all of their lists. If anyone knew what to do here, it would be him.

Clint figured that the guy had managed to save him, why couldn't Phil save Loki too?

A/N:

Natasha will not be showing up yet due to reasons of a plot device to bring in Darcy and Jane.

Side note, the Avengers already found out Coulson didn't die. One of the reasons they haven't been as worked up about Loki as they were.

I am too tired to write authors notes right now. But hey, I've gotten like 5 chapters up in a row!


	14. The Fourteenth Root

:?)(%** Sometime around late morning the next day **%)(?:

A jolt shot through Loki, he sat up in his bed, forcing down a scream. That was one of his least favorite nightmares, not that he really liked any of them. They all were pretty scary, but that one was the worst. Loki carefully went through the nightmares he could remember and noted any repeats. It was only then that he recalled the strangest nightmare he had been given to date. It hadn't been like the others, it hadn't scared him or hurt him or made him feel bad, it had made him happy.

Now that he thought about it, nightmare wasn't the correct word, it had been a dream. He hadn't had a dream in quite a long time, to be honest he had almost forgotten what they felt like. It had given him such a warm happy feeling, slowly Loki replied it in his mind. Bruce had been there, he had told Loki that he wasn't going to hurt him, he had hugged Loki and told him things would get better; Tony had been hurt but Loki had gotten to heal him. The dream had seemed so real, it had given him such a nice warm feeling. If only it had been real, not a dream, not some fantasy concocted by his mind. But that would never be true, it would never happen to him, he did not deserve such things.

No use dwelling on it now, Loki pulled himself out from under the blankets and noticed that he was still wearing his outfit from yesterday, it must have slipped his mind to change into his night clothes with all that had happened in the last evening. Quickly Loki changed his outfits, folding the old set carefully and placing it on the chair by the desk. The outfit he was now wearing was a bit more casual then his other one. A green undershirt and tunic with thick cotton pants, and his hat. Loki had barely been able to find his hat, it had been hiding from him. It didn't look like much, a fair sized rim and solid black, but it had been a gift from Sif. She had been the only one to remember his birthday that decade, and had gotten it for him. Loki liked the hat, it was one of the few things nobody had been able to take away from him yet.

The hat sat upon his head, looking just a little more worn than he remember, but still feeling as soft and reassuring as ever. Glancing around the room, Loki tried to get some idea of the time, but the curtains around the room were drawn. Nobody had come to yell at him yet though, so either he wasn't late or they had forgotten about him. Loki also noticed that it was exceedingly dark in the room, but he couldn't see any torches to light, he recalled Tony telling him about how JARVIS controlled the lighting, but Loki was already dressed and he didn't anything else important to do, so he just slipped out the doorway.

White and bright shades of yellow danced in front of Loki's eyes as they tried to adjust to the sudden illuminated state of the hallway. A few seconds past, but finally Loki could see again, quickly he found his bearings and made his way towards the kitchen. Windows littered the path that took him there and it wasn't hard to tell that it was almost mid-day. Well so much for not being late.

Finally Loki made his way to the kitchen, to his surprise, Steve and Tony were already there. Both of them turned their heads when he walked in, Loki ducked his head down and tried to shrink back. He hadn't know that they were already in here, it was rather rude to disturb others. Rather than giving him a blow of some sorts and then ignoring him as they should have done, Tony pushed himself off the counter and scooped Loki up into his arms. On instinct Loki wrapped his arms around Tony to steady himself, something that Tony didn't seem to mind. Tony began to talk really fast in a manner that Loki couldn't really keep up with no matter how hard he tried, but his voice was calming and he almost didn't notice that Tony set him down in one of the chairs, still talking as fast as a galloping horse.

Steve finally interjected.

"Tony, I understand that you would be willing to talk through just about every subject, but I don't think that Loki is quite able to keep up with you. Also I don't recall him getting much dinner in last night besides popcorn, so he should be eating some breakfast right now. Is there anything you'd like me to make?"

Taking a few moments, Loki thought through Steve's words and decided to take a chance, they clearly had different rules here on Midgard, so maybe Loki would be fine. When he spoke he held his hands in his lap, his eyes firmly fixed on them.

"I-I don't really mind what you make, b-but do you t-think you c-could maybe m-make something without m-meat? I-I don't really like t-the thought o-of some animal d-dying j-just so I could e-eat them."

It took an almost equal amount of time for Steve to respond, mostly because both he and Tony were trying not to 'Aw' at the little tyke. Really, Steve had no idea how this little angel had managed to be transformed into the man they had met in war. Scratch that, Steve knew exactly how, he just didn't understand how someone could do something as horrible as that. This time, they were going to make things right. Steve turned to the cupboard to get some pancake mix as he answered Loki.

"Of course I can. Have you ever tried pancakes before?"

/With Clint/

Clint yawned, a glance at the clock told him that it was about 10:47 in the morning. Five hours of sleep, not that bad. Two glances around the room confirmed him that there were no hostiles of any sort and so he fluidly slid down from his perch atop the dresser where he had fallen asleep last night. Pulling out his phone, the archer checked for anything of importance, the only thing that came up was a message from Coulson informing him that 'Tasha was fine and that she would be coming to the mansion in a few days. That brought a smile to his face, one that lasted all of ten seconds before he remembered what had transpired last night. Without really thinking about it, Clint dialed the number that was set as number one on his speed dial, two rings later and the familiar voice of his handler came on.

"Agent Barton?"

"I'm here Phil, there's no danger, to me anyways, and I just need your advice on a more personal problem. Do you remember Loki?"

A slightly sarcastic and teasing voice answered him.

"Hm? Vaguely, the name seems to ring a bell but I can't really put a face it. Yes Clint, I remember Loki. Please tell me you aren't thinking of asking him out."

There was a few moments of horrified silence on Clint's end before he managed to pull it together to answer his handler.

"First of all, no, no, no, no, no. Secondly, to put a long story short, he got transformed into a kid, we're all at Tony's house and it's pretty damn clear that the reason he went insane is because of the number of abusive jerks in Asgard. The kid can't be any more than six but he's got brains way beyond that and more issues than anyone else on the team. Do you have any ideas?"

This time the silence came from Phil as he took a few moments to think about the situation. Sadly, it wasn't the weirdest thing he'd ever had to handle. Finally he answered Clint.

"First and foremost, you guys should tell the kid about his real parentage. I could met him tomorrow and try to figure out what the best course of action is, but if he finds out the truth later on it could ruin any healing that he manages. I can't say much besides that without having met him. I'll talk to Fury about it now."

Clint nodded, then remembered that Phil couldn't see him and responded verbally.

"Okay. I'll talk to Thor about it. Thank you Phil."

"Not a problem. See you tomorrow."

A/N:

Well, that wasn't too bad.

I'm just gonna go curl up in my nice warm bed now.

Have a nice lifespan everyone.


	15. The Fifthteenth Root

Clint hung up his phone and pocketed it. Now where would Thor be? Probably still asleep. What about Loki? From what Clint knew of the guy, he would guess that he'd be an early riser. Or at least earlier than Thor. Not that that was saying much. Running through his options, Clint vetoed just telling Loki himself. It would have to come from Thor or it just wouldn't work, Thor needed to be there to reassure Loki that this didn't change anything. Sighing Clint ran a hand through his hair and put off all these thoughts, at least for a little bit.

One shower and a change of clothes later, Clint was roughly ready to go talk to Thor about this. He couldn't really think of a good way to start this sort of conversations, so instead he crawled through the air vents. It took him a few moments to gain his sense of direction and a solid minute to make his way into Thor's room, clearly that needed to be improved. Putting that on his list of things to do, Clint hopped down into the room below.

Thor was fast asleep on the bed, so Clint called him, hoping that Thor's warrior side would make him somewhat of a light sleeper.

"Thor, we need to have a chat."

Luckily for Clint, Thor was in fact, a light sleeper and awoke with a start at the call of his name. Unluckily for Clint, he startled, grabbed Mjölnir and swung it at Clint without bothering to see who it was. He was saved from a fast death by his reflexes, which got him out of the hammer's way just in time. Thor blinked for a few seconds and then realized what he had just done, a stream of babbled apologizes poured from him, before Clint cut him off with a nonchalant voice.

"Whoa, hold on. That was my fault. I should have knock. And come in through the door. Don't worry about it. Anyways, I talked to Coulson about Loki and he's going to meet the kid tomorrow, he said that for today we should tell him about his real parentage. One of many things that Frigga and Odin screwed up, was that they never told him about who he really was. Phil said that if he finds out later on it could undo whatever we do to fix him. Probably best to get all the emotional trauma over in one day, right? I would tell the kid myself, but I'm fairly sure it would be better if you did it. That way he'll know that you already knew about it and still love him."

Seconds ticked by before Thor answered him. His voice was more thoughtful than usual. Clint didn't think that he had ever heard Thor sound like that. First time for everything, Huh?

"Alright. I'll speak to him after we have both eaten."

"Right then. I'm gonna go see where the others are at."

Then, feeling just a bit too awkward to take the air duct out, Clint walked out the doorway.

_ /*&* This is a Line break *&*/_

Back in the kitchen, Tony, Steve and Loki had all sat down to eat. Tony was eating waffles, mostly because JARVIS was denying him access to the lab until he ate something, Steve was having a mix of scrambled eggs and pancakes and Loki was shyly picking at two pancakes. Two being the least amount that Steve was willing to give him, the young god was already looking rather underweight and nobody had any problems picking him up. Even Tony said that the kid's weight was comparable to that of a feather. But Steve also didn't want to push him, the lack of appetite could very well have something to do with Loki's frost giant heritage.

In truth, Loki was shocked the Steve had been kind enough to comply with his request and then go so far as to not even make a comment on how weak it was to not eat meat. Normally, Loki would just eat a small amount of fruit or whatever vegetable hadn't been soaked in gravy. Rarely would he have some bread, but for the most part that was always dripping with some sort of meat sauce. He knew that Odin would be staring at him with disapproving eyes on those few occasions he took notice of Loki during a feast. It was one of the things that he would yell at him about when he was in a drunk rage, but no matter how hard Loki tried he couldn't bring himself to eat the flesh of another living creature. Just the sight of meat made him wonder what that animal was like, if they had a family they would have liked to go back to. The more thought he put into it, the more wrong it felt and the less will he had to force himself to perform such an evil task.

Steve had made him a Midgardian food called 'Pancakes'. Loki quite liked them. They tasted like a light fluffy bread, and the butter on them gave them a mix of sweet and salty. It was a shame that they didn't have these in Asgard.

His train of thought was derailed when Thor entered the room. A small rush of panic worried away at him.

'_What if Thor finds out that I don't like to eat meat?'_

'_Would he be ashamed in me? Would he act like Odin?'_

Loki quickly through off the worries. Thor was nothing like Odin, Thor was kind and protected Loki, and Thor wouldn't care about what Loki ate. The 'what if's in his head didn't go away.

Everyone ate breakfast with chatter going on between the three adults, and Loki doing his very best to shrink into the chair. The chair was being rather uncooperative in the matter and steadfastly refusing to provide any sort of shelter for him. Finally when he had finished his food, he brought his plate over to a strange sort of slot and inserted the plate as he had seen the others do. Just as he was turning to leave, Thor called him over.

"Loki, I need to speak to you."

This was it. He thought to himself. Thor must have noticed that Loki didn't eat meats and now he was going to be angry at him about it. Resigning himself to his fate Loki hurriedly followed behind Thor as he led him off somewhere.

_ /*&* This is a Line break *&*/_

Thor had been thinking about the best way he could inform Loki about his true parents, and finally he had come to the conclusion that there was going to be no easy way out. He was just going to have to get it over with.

Loki was sitting across from him on Thor's bed, looking downwards. It took a few tries for Thor to manage to say what he wanted to, but finally he got it out.

"What I am about to tell you is something that you should have been told a long time ago. You are not really Odin's son, or Frigga's for that matter. You are the son of Laufey, king of the frost giants. From what I have been told, Odin found you out in the cold and took you in. No matter what he claims, I think that it was either a mistake or an attempt to steal you that lead you to be in that position. I thought that it was time you knew the truth and I also want you to know that this changes nothing between us. You will always be my little brother, whether or not we are bonded by blood."

It took a couple of seconds for Loki to take in what he had just been told. It took a couple more for him to react. Said reaction was to curl himself into a ball and look shell-shocked as his entire life crumbled away. Suddenly, things began to make sense. This was why Odin had always given him those hated glares, this was why Frigga never came to his rescue. This was why he had been cast out and rejected for his entire life, by the Asgardian society. Sometimes he had wondered why he had green eyes, even though nobody else in his family did, but he had always pushed those thoughts away. Buried the truth he didn't want to find.

But now, it was all uncovered. Who he truly was. The words that Odin had shouted at him so many times, that had been told to him again and again and again by so many different kinds of people so many different times. His head fell onto his knees as he found the truth in their words.

"**You're a monster."**

A/N:

That came out better than I thought it would.

Update on my pets, the cats has stopped bothering me entirely in favor of the box. The dogs still insist upon hindering my writing.


	16. The Sixteenth Root

'_This is not going well.'_

Maybe Thor could have been a bit more tactful about the way he had said that. He really was not good with words. Unsure of what to do, but understanding that he had to do something because Loki looked like he was going to break down, Thor did the only thing that he could think of at the time. As gently as he could, Thor pulled Loki into a hug, murmuring soft words into his ears.

"Shh, it's okay. You're not a monster, you're not a freak. You're my brother, even if not by blood, you are and will always be my brother. This changes nothing."

At the last sentence, Loki's eye flew up to him, and in a half panicked voice he asked,

"How could this change nothing?! This changes everything! My whole life has been a complete and utter lie!"

Thor shook his head firmly and finally, words came to his mind.

"No. Because Loki, this is not something new. You have always been my brother and you have also been a Frost Giant. Five minutes ago you were my brother, five minutes ago you were a frost giant. A decade ago you were my brother, a decade ago you were a frost giant. From the moment I met you when we were both but babies, you were still a frost giant and you were still my brother. In this moment, you are a frost giant and you are my brother. Nothing has changed."

Throughout his speech, Thor continued to hold Loki closer and closer until anymore would hurt him. Tears were still dripping from Loki's eyes, but they were slowing and he hugged Thor back with just as much force.

Things were hard and it was going to be awhile before things got better between them, but now there were no more lies tangling the two of them up and pulling them apart.

Neither of them noticed that the door was just slightly ajar, and that a smile had formed on the face of a certain archer.

Hawkeye moved away from the doorway to give the two of them their space and instead slunk down the hallway to where Steve and Tony sat in the kitchen, both looked up at him when he entered. It was Steve who asked him the question that both of them wanted the answer to.

"Well, how did it go? Did he take it well?"

The smile on Clint's face really should have been answer enough, but he said it aloud anyways.

"As well as someone could take that sort of news. There were some tears, but it looks like Thor got through to him. Tomorrow we're heading over to the helicarrier to see Coulson. He wants to meet the kid and with any luck he'll have some idea of how to help him."

Steve looked a little wary about the idea, it wasn't that he didn't like Coulson. He was a great man and very smart, but adult Loki had almost killed the guy. Being careful of his words, he voiced his fears.

"Look, I know that Coulson is a great guy and I don't doubt that he would know how to help Loki, but he did almost kill him. Are you sure about this?"

Eyebrow raised and an are-you-serious tone in voice, Clint responded.

"You do realize that some of the agents Coulson is closest to or was close to, tried to kill him at one point or another. He does not hold a grudge. And If anyone can help him, Coulson can. The man is amazing with kids, I've seen him save children who were so far gone we couldn't even understand them."

What was left unsaid was that, just maybe, Clint had been one of those kids.

The rest of the day progressed without much going on. Loki seemed to move around in a shell-shock state, and was rather jumpy. He stayed up with Tony and Clint to watch random episodes of Doctor Who, all out of order. It was the first thing he ever showed a real interested in. In the end he fell asleep curled up in Tony's arms. Tony didn't even complain about missing one of his favorite parts to carry the kid to bed. It took him way longer than it should have to get back, when he did Clint gave him a knowing looking.

"It's hard to leave him alone, isn't it? You just feel like he's so small and helpless that the wind could break him."

"Yeah, honestly, I wonder how he survived through all of that.

-/ The next morning /-

The next day went fairly smoothly through the early hours of the morning, Clint's guess was right on the mark and it turns out that Loki was in fact, an early riser. It took till about half pasted ten, but finally all the Avengers were ready to leave. Loki had been told that they were going to visit a friend of theirs that was going to see if he could help him, it took a little while to get Loki convinced that it wasn't in fact about his lack of muscles, but eventually they got him through it.

Finally, Tony, Steve, Clint, Thor and Loki were all standing just outside the house. A Shield aircraft was supposed to be coming any minute now. It took four minute longer than planned but the plane showed up on the horizon at hurried down onto the landing strip. The flight was short to the helicarrier and when they arrived, Coulson was already waiting for them. It took a fair amount of self-restraint for Clint to not bound off the plane to meet him.

He was still the first one of the plane, the moment the landing gear went down, Tony followed him closely with Steve lingering back with Thor who was carrying Loki. Clint saluted Coulson, even given that it was half mocking, it still stood.

"It's good to see you, sir."

Okay, the Sir may have been in a rather sarcastic tone, but hey, at least Clint was trying.

"Same to you, Agent Barton."

"Hello, Agent."

Ah, that would be Tony. Coulson was starting to wonder if he would ever get rid of that nickname.

"Mr. Stark."

Steve gave him a much more full-hearted Salute and a handshake, but they were distracted from words, by the small child that Thor was carrying.

The young god was watching Coulson carefully, clearly a bit unnerved by him. A smile formed on Coulson's face, a softer smile then most of his. If Coulson had one weak spot, it would be kids. He could never bring himself to be angry with them, except for those times that they disobey instructions and put themselves at risk. Coulson greeted Loki with a ruffle of his hair, something that he was clearly not used to.

"And you must be Loki. It's very nice to meet you."

A/N:

I keep telling myself that I'll start these earlier in the day and I keep starting them later on.


	17. The Seventeenth Root

Loki Deaged Chapter 17

Loki gave Coulson an unsure look, he had overheard Tony and Bruce talking about the man. They didn't say anything bad about him, if anything they seemed to like the man, but they had also said something about him 'fixing' Loki. He wasn't sure what 'fixing' meant to them, but Odin's word for 'fixing' or 'fixing him' was to beat him until he couldn't move, Loki didn't know how that fixed him, but he did know that he didn't like it very much. Hoping that maybe it was just another time that the Midgardian word meant something different, Loki extended a hand to Coulson.

"H-hello, Sir."

Coulson's smile remained the same, but inside his head he was noting Loki's behavioral patterns and matching them up to various conditions and mental issues. The length of the list was not going down. Clear signs of physical abuse from the flinch when he shook his hand. Clearly clinging onto Thor even though he was fully supported, that would mean affection starvation, co-dependency or abandonment issues, possibly all three. Natural fear in his eyes even though Thor was right there and able to protect him, it wasn't that Loki thought Thor couldn't protect him, it was a would he. So a check on abandonment issues and most likely low self-esteem. Given the fact that his gaze went pretty much straight down after the handshake, the self-esteem issues were a yes. It was likely that he also was pretty shy or at least fearful of meeting new people.

A few seconds had passed in the time it took Coulson to figure all this out, quickly he replied to Loki.

"Hello there, Loki. You can call me Coulson or Phil if you'd prefer. I don't mind either way."

Seeing that the attention was making Loki pretty uncomfortable, Coulson waited for Loki to nod before moving his gaze up to Thor. Subtly, Thor gave him a nod and adjusted his grip ever so slightly.

"Loki, I was wondering if you would be alright with talking with me in my office? You aren't in trouble or anything, but I would like to ask you some questions."

Now Loki was worried, what if the word didn't mean something different in Midgardian. What if Coulson was lying? What if he had done something bad? Loki forced his mask to stay in place, breath in, breath out, in, out, in out. As politely as he could muster, Loki nodded and answered.

"Yes, I could do that, if you wanted me to."

With the permission given, all of them began to move indoors.

-/ In Coulson's Office /-

It was just Loki and Coulson in the room, it was not what Loki had been expecting. Rather than being filled with decorative furniture and breakable things, Coulson's office had three chairs, a desk, and some brightly colored objects that looked like toys. Loki figured that they couldn't possibly be that, because why would a grown man have toys? But Loki couldn't find another name for them, there was a small set of brightly colored balls that appeared to be made of some sort of rubber, a tray of tiny, sticky, rainbow balls of foam that were molded into and holding the shape of an arch, and a collection of various painted figures, most of which were animals.

All in all, the office was quite inviting, and it scared Loki a lot less then he thought it would. If anything it calmed him down a bit. Cautiously, he chanced a look up at Coulson from his position in the chair just to the right of the desk. He seemed to be trying to find something in the papers, he frowned but gave up after a few more moments of searching. Coulson turned to Loki, who quickly refocused his gaze on his lap and waited, be it for words or a blow he wasn't really sure, but he did know that one of the other was sure to come.

Once more, Loki was surprised when Coulson sat down, not in the chair behind the desk, but rather in the chair besides Loki's, which he then angled so that it was facing him. Finally he spoke, his voice was calm and soft, not like Loki had heard outside.

"First, I want you to understand that you do not have to tell me anything you don't want to. If you don't want to talk about something, you don't have to. Second, I need you to be honest with me in here. Third, if you say something here that you don't want anyone else to know, you have the right to tell me that. If you want something to stay between us, I will not tell anyone else unless it becomes a life or death situation. You don't even have to say anything, just nod for yes or shake your head for no. Okay?"

Loki stuttered his response, not used to any of this.

"O-okay."

Coulson gave Loki a smile, one he couldn't see because his head was pointed firmly down towards his lap.

"Alright, well to get it off the table, has anyone ever hit or otherwise hurt you?"

It took Loki a few seconds of doubt and turmoil before he finally nodded his head. Right, so it was a case of abuse here. The questions continued much in the form of twenty questions.

"Was there more than one person?"

A nod.

"More than 5 people?"

Another nod.

"More than 10?"

A third nod, Coulson was have to fight very strongly to not call out an announcement that left Asgard open ground for killing.

"More than 20?"

One more nod.

"More than 40?"

Thankfully this time, Loki shook his head. Now it was time to check some people.

"Did Thor ever hurt you?"

This was the first question to bring a verbal response from him.

"N-no, I m-mean y-yes. N-never o-n purpose, u-unless w-we w-ere p-play fighting. A-and h-he never r-really hurt m-me."

It was Coulson's turn to nod this time, he didn't think that Thor ever would, but it never hurt to check. He asked the next question, one he had already guessed the answer to.

"Did Odin?"

It was a full forty-five seconds before Loki finally gave the slightest of nods. Alright, that was over with. Toy had said he had a list of names, but Coulson had needed to check for himself, just to be safe.

"Did he ever yell at you?"

This time Loki gave him another verbal answer.

"Y-yes. H-e y-yells a-at me a-a l-ot. H-he g-gets m-mad b-bec-cause I-I'm w-we-ea-k a-an-nd w-worth-l-es-ss and b-bad."

As he spoke he curled himself up into a ball, his knees drawn to his chin and his eyes becoming more and more unseeing. Coulson had seen these plenty of times before, and he knew how to handle them. It was PTSD. No kid that young should have flipping PTSD.

Coulson quickly moved to wrap Loki up in a hug as best he could, now reconsidering that open-game announcement.

A/N:

So tired.

I need to stop posting these at like midnight.


	18. The Eighteenth Root

It was a while before Loki was okay to talk again. As much as Coulson didn't want to have to put him through this, he needed to know what he was dealing with.

Both back in their chairs with Loki's breathing mostly back to normal, he gave Coulson a slight nod to indicate that he was ready. Coulson started asking his questions again.

"Did Frigga ever hurt you?"

A shake of the head. Good, at least there was that.

"Were you ever sexually abused?"

Another shake. Thank every god that he didn't believe in.

"Was is mostly adults who abused you?"

A nod. His breathing was starting to get shaky, that would have to be enough. The last thing Coulson wanted was to put the kid through any more stuff then he had already been through. That same soft smile returned to Coulson and he extended a hand to Loki, while doing so he spoke, his tone a bit lighter now that the hard part was over.

"Alright, that should be everything I need to ask you. Let's get you back to Thor and the others, okay?"

Loki took the offered hand, as nice as Coulson turned out to be, he wanted to be back with his brot- No. Thor wasn't his brother and he needed to stop thinking that. This train of thought quickly took over his mind, so he didn't notice at first, when rather than helping him out of the rather large chair, Coulson scooped Loki up into his arms. A few moments of surprise overtook him, before he decided that Coulson wasn't going to hurt him and relaxed into the half hug, and allowed himself to be carried down the hallways. It was then that he noted that Coulson was rather warm too.

To be fair, Coulson really had been planning on helping him out of the chair, but he had just looked rather small and fearful, much like a timid rabbit in one of Coulson's chairs that was made for an adult which didn't help, and he was only so strong. Coulson just couldn't see how anyone could stand to hurt such an innocent little thing. Everyone in Asgard must be blind, it was the only thing that made sense. When Loki relaxed onto his shoulder, Coulson had to try very hard and almost failed at not awing. Years of experience as an agent be damned.

They got to the room where the Avengers _should _have been, but it was found to be quite empty. A check to his watch told Coulson that it wasn't that late, the talk had only taken about twenty minutes and he had guessed that it would be twenty-five, so the only reason they wouldn't be here was if they got districted, lost or forgot the time.

You'd think that he'd be used to this sort of stuff by now. Heaving a sigh, Coulson gently set Loki down. As much as he didn't want to leave him alone, he did trust the other agents not to pull anything. Only the team, himself and their pilot knew they were meeting here, but the room was off-limits so he should be just fine to be here for just a few minutes. The pilot was a nice women and great with kids, on the longshot she did come in here, she wouldn't do anything.

"It figures that they wouldn't be here on time. I'm going to be gone for just a few minutes to find them, okay? Will you be alright on your own?"

Loki gave him a nod and watched with trusting eyes as Coulson left the room. He glanced around the room, and finding that nothing was wrong with it, he moved to sit in one of the chairs around the table. His legs were pulled up to his chin, but for once, he wasn't trying to hide or comfort himself, for once, he was just in that position out of habit. For the very first time in a long time, Loki allowed himself a small smile, because for once in his life, things looked like the might get better. And even if they didn't, he would still have some nice memories to escape to. The smile lasted for another minute or so before he finally forced himself to put back on his mask, but unbeknownst to Loki, that mask was starting to form little chips and cracks at the sides.

Because harsh words, blows, pain and hurt had all come and gone and the mask had faced them all and come out without a scratch. Nothing had managed to break it, nobody had been able to truly see him without all the layers and hiding. Coulson had done something different, he had be nice and smiled, but most importantly, he had told Loki that he didn't have to. That he was allowed to say that he didn't want to talk about something. It was strange for Loki to have a way out, to not have to follow every instruction given. It was strange to feel like his mask wasn't being attacked.

That is why the mask and armor was starting to chip and crack, for once, it wasn't invulnerable, and it scared Loki that he was letting other people get through his armor, but what scared him most of all was that he was starting to wonder if letting someone else in would really be that bad. Because for once in his life, Loki done with all the hiding. It had never made anything better, if anything it made it worse. He was done with always falling for his own illusions that he would conjure up only to be hurt even more when Odin vanished in the middle of telling Loki he was sorry, or Frigga disappeared when Loki would try to give her a hug after she had told him that loved him just as much as Thor. Loki worried that if he kept falling back on those, one day everything would seem to be an illusion, he would never be able to trust anyone else's words.

And Loki didn't want that to happen. So for once, he was going to take a risk and just try. For once, it was time for reality. He looked down at his hands and wondered what they really looked like, when they were blue. Would his eyes still be green? Were they green in the first place? It was hard for him to imagine looking in the mirror and not seeing, well him.

Loki was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn't notice the door creaking open. He didn't see two eyes peer into the room, both full of hatred.

A/N:

Just to point this out, some people have been saying that Loki sound surprisingly more grown up then his age range (6-7). But I wanted to point out that that is just the Midgardian equivalent of what he looks like. In reality Asgardian live for thousands of years and so I would imagine them being somewhat more mature, except not really mature. People in Asgard act like children.

Loki is also very smart and just a mature child. Point blank.


	19. The Nineteenth Root

"_He didn't see two eyes peer into the room, both full of hatred._

The door silently moved open, Loki's chair was turned away from the doorway so he didn't see the person standing in the door. It was a female, she would have been very pretty, with ponytailed brown hair that hung just touching her shoulders. She was wearing the standard SHIELD uniform for pilots, she pulled it off quite nicely, and her figure was well taken care of. Yes, she really would have been quite pretty if her face wasn't contorted with hatred, her eyes alight with hatred, all of which was focused on the contents of the chair in front of her.

There he was, Coulson's attacker. Ah, Coulson, her love, he might be unwilling to take revenge on the evil, vile creature that had harmed him, simply because it hid in the form of a child, but she would not be fooled. She knew that the thing was a monster, it was why she had signed up for pilot duty, and Coulson trusted her to carry out this act for him. Otherwise he wouldn't have chosen her for this mission.

With all her years of experience as an agent she easily snuck up to the chair after having closed the door behind her. The monster expected nothing, but she wanted him to see her before she took her revenge. She wanted him to know what he did to deserve this. Spinning the chair around, she pulled her knife out of the small sheath she kept on her hip. The knife was poised at his throat and the monster had enough sense in it to keep silent. A grin spread across her face as she began to speak.

"Well hello there, _Monster._ You may have fooled the others, but you won't fool me. I know the truth. I know that you're a horrible nasty little creature, I know that you're a monster and I won't let you get away with it. I'll take revenge for them. Nobody is going to save you now. Coulson made sure of that. The others helped too."

Loki was more than a little confused and even more scared. The knife was pressed against his throat and no matter how hard he tried to control his breathing it was still picking up speed. Slowly he took in her words and his eyes widened. He had no idea what to do, but those voices at the back at the mind were whispering to him that he shouldn't do anything. The same voices who had told him not to trust them, not to listen to Coulson's nice words. No, that's what he should have said, he shouldn't have been so stupid. Pain flared in his chest, not the healable pain but instead that stupid ache his heart got whenever he was betrayed yet again. You'd think he would have known better than to trust them, to begin to take off his mask.

Why had he been so stupid? Why did he keep falling for the same old tricks? Shouldn't he have learned his lesson with those lies Frigga used to whisper in his ear on those very few occasions she retrieved him after Odin had punished him. It was only ever when he was too broken to move and unable to heal himself with his magic, she would come in when Odin had yelled for the fifth or sixth time for Loki to get out of his sight without him leaving or answering. Then she would take him back to his chamber and tuck him in and promise that it was never going to happen again, that she wouldn't let it happen again.

It always happened again, and she never stopped Odin. At least Loki was used to getting betrayed by now, it hurt a lot more the first time.

Pain flared up as the knife was twisted into his stomach, it hurt, but Loki didn't even flinch. He was done, with all of this. There wasn't any more reason for him to fight back anymore. The women was still talking but he couldn't hear her words. Darkness flickered in and out of his sight and for once he didn't call on Magic. Speaking of Magic, it was currently writhing and screaming at Loki to let it free and to fight. For once, Loki ignored it as the blood flowed out of him freely, under his breath he spoke a few soft words.

"Goodnight Magic, I'm sorry my friend. Goodnight Sif, thank you for sharing in my pain. Goodnight Wind, thank you for your kind words. Goodnight Mother, Father, Brother, I suppose you'll all be happier this way."

The women had stood up and was leering at him now, a look of disgust on her face. It took a moment for Loki to notice his hand, blue was where pale should have been. So this was his true form. Using the last of his energy, Loki let Magic loose just enough as to create a mirror like surface. For a few moments he stared at his true form, a smile fitted itself onto his face. So he really did have green eyes, he had always thought that frost giants had to have red eyes.

And with that thought, his eyes drifted close without the intent of ever opening them again.

_+*%%%$ With Coulson/The Avengers $%%%*+_

Coulson was almost running down the hallway, the others in close pursuit. It had taken him a while to find them, mostly because they had thought they were in the right place. He had found them at the opposite end of the ship where the pilot had told them Coulson would be meeting them, the reasons being that someone else was in the other meeting room. The issues with that was the Coulson had said no such thing, and that meant that Loki was left unattended and something was clearly wrong. Okay, now he was running.

She wouldn't hurt him right? Coulson had known that she had taken the news of his almost death hard, but she wouldn't hurt an innocent child over it, right? He wasn't really so sure now.

Finally they reached the door to the meeting room, it was flung open and quite possible torn off, Coulson really couldn't tell. Right now all of his attention was focus on the two figures standing in the room. One was grinning in an evil, crazed way, it was the pilot. She had completely lost it. But what worried him more was the small and innocent figure of Loki, which was currently slumped over in a chair, his body a soft shade of blue and looking very much like a frost giant, he had a soft smile on his face. If it hadn't been for the gaping wound in his abdominal area, it would have looked quite peaceful.

For once, Coulson was unable to process a very important piece of data until seconds later, his mind was still reeling with shock. But once he did notice it, it got much worse and he moved as fast as he could towards Loki. This was bad. Very bad. Worse than almost everything Coulson had encountered beforehand.

Loki wasn't breathing.

A/N:

I'm such an evil, evil person.

Updates are now moving back to the usual Monday/Thursday Releases. I had fun writing for you guys, but break is over and I have plenty of work to get done. All these chapters I've released over break are going to get betaed and put up again, so if you've noticed some errors, most of them will get corrected with that.


	20. The First Branch

The moment that Bruce's mind took in the situation, there was no force on earth that could have stopped the other guy from coming out. There was barely time for his teammates to get out of the way before he turned a rather deep shade of green and his body began to expand. It took two seconds for the transformation to take place and the moment the Hulk was free, he leapt at Loki's attacker and smashed a hole through the shell of the Heli-carrier. He was rather quickly followed by Thor and, after putting on his suit, Tony. It was a pretty good thing he had thought to bring it along, because it looked like they were going to need it.

This left Coulson, Clint and Steve in the room. Coulson was the first to be able to get to Loki and he moved as fast as he possibly could to cross the room, using the chair as a carrier, he tugged it across the room and away from the gaping hole. The moment it was safe, he gently scooped Loki out of the seat and began trying to both stop the bleeding and restart Loki's heart, which had also gone still. Steve and Clint joined him as fast as they could to assist with slowing the blood flow, but it was all for naught, Loki's heart would not function.

It was then that Coulson got an idea, it was stupid but brilliant at the same time and he had no idea if it would work, but it was their best hope. He shouted at Clint and Steve in order to be heard over the now worrying amounts of wind coming in from the hole in the metal plating.

"Get him to the med-bay and have them try to save him. I've got an idea."

The moment he finished talking he was out the door, flat-out running and dodging around some rather confused agents. As fast as he could, he made his way to the storage room, the one where Shield kept old projects that might be continued if the proper conditions showed up. His mind was working at a mile a moment as he scanned the labels of the boxes. Finally he found four that had the proper labeling, and ripped the top off the first. Nope, it was all files, same for the second one. The third contained some of the prototypes but it was the fourth that held what he was looking for, a set of small vials of glowing blue liquid. Each one a sample of energy extracted from the Tesseract.

The scientist has made a point to add in all of their reports on the energies, that it had a high potential for healing if it could be de-energized enough so that it wouldn't overload people and cause them to turn into blue streaks of light. Well, de-energizing it hadn't worked so far, but Loki's body should be able to handle the energy intake. Coulson grabbed one of the vials and took off again, on his way out he shouted at one of the agents to fix the boxes.

It seemed like it took ages, when in fact it only took Coulson about a minute to make it to the Med-bay. When he got there, he found Steve and Clint, both standing worriedly by the door to one of the rooms. They looked up when he entered, both clearly wanting to ask him what he had been doing, but he didn't have any time, so he instead, dodged around them and pushed open the door into the room. Within the room, three doctors and two nurses were doing everything they could to try and revive Loki to no avail, they looked up when Coulson burst in, about ready to yell at him to get out, but he shouted first.

"Everybody stand back."

They obeyed and barely managed to stand out of the way in time for Coulson to reach Loki, uncork the vial and allow, one tiny drop poured out from the vial and into Loki's mouth. The reaction was instantaneous.

Loki's body hovered off of the bed, a blue light cascading around him, focusing on the wound in his body, but also connecting to his heart and head. For just a moment, between the blue glow of the light and the natural blue of Loki's body, Coulson was afraid that he might not make it, but then it was over. Gently the blue light set Loki down onto the cot where the doctors had placed him, the wound was compete healed, but Loki still wasn't breathing. The light curled in on itself and vanished, the silence in the room could have been cut by a spoon, and then Loki's breathing resumed. Slow and steady, as if he had only been taking a nap and not been through death's door.

A sigh of relief escaped Coulson as he took in the fact that it had worked. Recorking the energy, he tucked the vial into his pocket before turning to the doctors, glancing over the team he gave a small smile, these people he should be able to trust. Their team was well known for treating former enemies and keeping a very strict code of ethics, even going so far as to stand up to Fury. Clint had made a wise choice bring Loki to them.

"I trust that all of you can keep quiet about Loki's current state and his presence here?"

Uniform nods circled the room, and a few more seconds passed before one of the doctors spoke.

"While I do appreciate your actions Agent Coulson, we would like to check our patient now to see whether or not he is fully recovered. After that, I am not allowing him to leave this room until he has had at least 12 hours of rest."

Coulson nodded and start to exit, in the doorway he was stopped by one of the doctor's voice.

"Should we be expecting another patient soon?"

A moment of silence followed as Coulson's face darkened.

"If there's anything left of her, yes."

====+- Line Break -+===

Thor and Tony had finally talked Hulk into letting the agent go. It had taken awhile, though they hadn't really been trying until the point where she was probably going to die if they didn't. Tony was the one to carry her back to the Heli-carrier, Thor had stayed behind to get Bruce once the Hulk calmed down. He was flying at top speed, not because he particularly cared about the women, she wasn't going to die too soon, broken limbs and nasty scars, but he did want to know about how Loki was.

When he finally reached the entry way, a couple of agents raised an eyebrow at the other agent's condition and a few looked about ready to offer help, but he waved them all off. He had landed pretty close to the med-bay, when he got there, he saw Clint and Steve standing outside of the doorway talking to Coulson. They saw him and their faces darkened, not at him, but at the girl in his arms. Coulson gestured to the doorway, one away from where they stood and Tony moved towards it, about to inquire about Loki's condition before Clint cut him off.

"He's alive, Coulson used some of this energy we extracted from the Tesseract to heal him. He'll be fine."

It was the best news Tony had heard all day.

A/N:

I considered killing him off.

I really did.

But my friend threatened to push me off the waterfall we were on.

So I didn't.

You should thank her.

Also, I don't have time to reply to all of your awesome comments, but I do read each and every one.


	21. The Second Branch

It had taken some time to get everyone aware of Loki's condition, more importantly the fact he wasn't dead. The agent had survived but she was being placed in one of Shields mental programs and it was rather unlikely that she would be walking any time soon.

Loki was completely healed by the Tesseract's energy. The doctors had never seen anything like it. He was up not three hours after the healing, he didn't move from his place in the bed for five, so the nurse didn't notice it until then. When he did it was only a little movement, Loki moved his hand from where it was hanging off of the bed. Quickly the nurse watching over him moved to check on him, the first thing she noticed was his eyes, they were almost completely blank. The nurse had chalked it up to a side effect of the energy overload, but to be honest she wasn't so sure. So putting the official transcript aside, she went to talk to Coulson.

It took two knocks for her to be admitted into the room that Coulson was staying in along with the other avengers, all eyes in the room were fixed on her. It was slightly unsettling, but she spoke to them all the same. Really, it wasn't the worst she had be forced to deal with, there had been the time with the bloody walruses.

"The doctors did a full exam of Loki and he checked out just fine, no damage of any kind. He woke up about two hours ago according to our sensors. There wasn't any movement until half an hour ago so we didn't notice until then. The movement was rather slight and we think that the energy from the Tesseract has taken a toll on him. I would also like to speak to agent Coulson off the record about this matter."

The flood of relaxation that had been engulfing the room was quickly dammed, everyone seemed to tense up on her last words. Coulson took a moment before nodding. Having assurance that he would follow, the nurse turned and walked from the room, trying to stay as professional as she could, at least until she was out of the sight of everyone else. Once having moved to an empty hallway, she turned to face Coulson who was wearing a questioning look, he tried to speak but she cut him off.

"I'm concerned about Loki's mental health. I reviewed what could be recovered of the security tape and what that women said was not only horrible, terrible things, but she also stated a few times that both you and the avengers were involved in this as some sort of plot. I can't tell how much he had heard, but when he woke up, his eyes were in this weird almost blank state, and the only reason he moved was to pull his hand back onto the bed. I understand that the report may say one thing, but I don't think that he's alright."

"I figured as much, she was still shouting those sorts of things when we got there. I have no idea where it came from, she's always been such a nice person. To be honest, I have no idea how we're going to fix this. The only thing I think of is to do our best and maybe time will be able to start fixing this. I don't know if even that could work at this point."

A grim nod from the nurse confirmed this. She turned over her memories before she remember something from Loki's file, an important something.

"Loki's a frost giant, right?"

"From what Thor's told us, yes."

"Well then, wouldn't snow and ice be good for him? I doubt they get much in Asgard and at this point anything could help. It might have a mental healing effect on him."

For a few seconds Coulson ran the thought around in his mind, and the more he did so, the more it was starting to sound like a good idea. It would need to be run past the others, but being in a more comfortable environment might help Loki recover. There were plenty of cases of changing the location positively effecting people's mental health, and anything was worth a shot at this point. Coulson turned his thoughts back to the nurse standing in front of him, and answered her.

"I think that might actually be good for him. I'll need to check in with the other avengers, but it may work."

- With Loki -

It had taken him all of twenty minutes to figure out that he was not, in fact, dead. It took him an hour and forty minutes to muster up the strength to move his arm, just back onto the bed. Another ten minutes passed before he remember why he was here.

The Lady, the knife, the words.

He gave it some thought, the lady had put the knife into his stomach, so why was there no pain there? A little movement of his pinkie against the sheets confirmed that he was still feeling things, so it couldn't be that he had been given a potion, and now that he thought about it a bit more, he couldn't feel anything wet on his stomach.

It was then he noticed another lady dressed in a different outfit. She spoke to him for a bit, he didn't answer, he wanted to but he couldn't find the energy too. So he let her talk, she had a very pretty voice, even if he could really understand what she was saying, it was nothing like the other Lady. No, the other Lady did not have a pretty voice, she had a mean voice that Loki didn't like very much. Looking around with his eyes, Loki couldn't see the other Lady.

That was when he figured it out, he must have gotten into an accident and used an energy zapping substance on himself, and it had all been one nasty nightmare. The book he had found on the subject had said that it was a common side effect. He would have breathed a sigh of relief, but breathing was already hard enough. Nothing but a really nasty nightmare. This meant that Thor and the others didn't hate him.

With that thought in mind, Loki drifted back into a gentle sleep.

He began to dream again, but this dream was different. It wasn't scary per say, just strange. There was a warm blue light, the light was moving all around him, but it wasn't leaving, instead it was forming some sort of protective layer around him. To be honest, it didn't feel bad, if anything it felt quite nice and safe. Loki had no idea where the energy had come from, but he was glad it was there. A gentle hum filled the… now that he thought about it, he didn't know where he was. Black was all he could see beyond the blue light. That should probably worry him, but with the light around him, he felt very safe, as if nothing could hurt him.

Slowly Loki closed his eyes and simply enjoyed the warmth of the light cascading around him.

A/N:

You thought that energy was gone, didn't you?

Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it always goes somewhere. The energy is still with Loki.

Sings out: *Plot twist*


	22. The Third Branch

Reluctantly Loki awoke from his sleep, a voice was speaking to him. The voice sounded nice, but urging, and it would be really impolite to ignore it, but the blue light was so comfortable. Needless to say, Loki was not happy that he was being forced to leave the blue light behind as he forced his eyes open, hazy images flickering around in front of his vision. Slowly, a picture formed and the world stopped being hazy and pulled itself into focus. Said image was of the same lady, the real one, from before. She was gentle shaking his shoulder and speaking to him.

Sluggishly, he fought a battle against gravity in order to rub at his eyes with one of his hands, this action seemed to startle the lady because she took a step back. After a few moments, she spoke and this time Loki could make out what she was saying.

"Are you alright? Do you feel any sort of pain? Do you need any help?"

Loki tried to answer her right away, but before he could, a yawn escaped him. Stifling it, he tried once more to answer, though it was mostly mumbled.

"M'fine, no pain. Tired."

Then he began the process of attempting to sit up-right in his bed. Luckily for him, the pillow was rather large and he didn't have to move very much before he was about to use it to prop himself up. The lady was talking again.

"Alright, that's very good. You can go back to sleep soon, I just need to ask you a few questions first, okay?"

Rather than a verbal response, Loki just nodded, hoping that she wouldn't mind.

"What can you remember from the point where Coulson left you in the meeting room to get the others?"

This question made Loki a little unsure. Did dreams count? Decided that they probably did, Loki began to talk.

"Not much. I think I feel asleep. I do remember the dreams I had though."

Now the lady was looking a little surprised and interested. She prompted him gently.

"Would you mind sharing those dreams with me?"

A slight nod of the head accompanied Loki's reply. As he talked his face was rather expressive. It was quite unlike what the nurse had seen in other abuse patients. She did manage to keep her face at least somewhat clear of emotions, giving him the wrong message would not be good.

"There were two of them. I didn't like the first one very much, it had a mean Lady in it. She stabbed me, and according to her, the others helped her. That one I thought was real for a bit, but then I realized that if it was, I would be hurt or dead. And I'm not. I liked the second one a lot more, it happened after I woke up the first time. In it there was this really pretty blue light that was all around me, it was nice and warm, not the fire sort of warm, but the people sort of warm. The light was keeping me safe from the dark stuff on the outside. I don't really know what it was, but it didn't matter 'cause the blue light was between me and it."

Loki didn't mind talking about all of this to the lady, she seemed very nice, and that safe feeling the blue light dream had given him hadn't gone away. It was like if anything tried to hurt him, somehow he knew it would fail. Not being afraid was quite nice.

Well that was not what she had been expecting. Thinking back on her memories of Loki's revival, the Tesseract's energy had just disappeared. The possible outcomes here, were that either Loki was having the feeling of the healing coming up in his dreams, or the Tesseract's energy was still inside Loki. Whether that was a good or a bad thing remained to be seen.

Now, the more important thing was the first 'dream'. Clearly Loki was convinced that the previous events had not taken place. To be fair, there was nothing to support that they had, he had returned to his usual Asgardian form in his sleep. It would be up to Thor to decide whether or not Loki was told the truth, as he was his current legal guardian. As much as she would like to, she was not allowed to simply tell him.

She finished up asking him the other basic questions, he was being fairly open with her, so that was a good sign. Finally she did have to leave, and so she did, right after jotting down a quick meal request in the system. Loki had never mentioned being hunger, but it was fair to assume he was. Once that was completely, the nurse took down the hallway and set off for where the avengers were, to inform them of this new change.

_*(With the Avengers)* _

When Coulson had brought in the idea of a trip to the mountains, there had been a fair bit of fighting. Thor had been very against it, he had thought that something that may reminded Loki of his true heritage would be a bad idea. On the other hand, Tony had been all for it, he had thought it would be good for the kid. Neither had been willing to back down on their stance, and eventually, the whole thing had dissolved into a shouting match.

Said shouting match was given an abrupt end when Tony got completely fed up and finally yelled something that crossed the line.

"You know what, I don't think Loki's the issue here. I think it's you. The issue isn't that Loki would be ashamed of who he really is, it's that you're ashamed of who he really is. That you can't get over the fact that your little baby brother is actually a frost giant."

The last words were almost spat at Thor, and once they were finished, Tony stomped out of the room. Nobody had any idea where he was planning to go on the Heli-carrier, but they could guess that Coulson would be getting some complaints soon. Thor was standing in a sort of shock. He really didn't know what to do, Hel, he didn't even know whether or not Tony was right.

When he had found out Loki was a frost giant, he didn't get very much time to react or formulate any sort of opinion on the matter. It was all just acceptance because he had already lost so much of his little brother. Now that he had him back, voices were nagging at the back of his mind. That Loki was really that creature he had been raised to hate. Thor would never be able to call Loki a monster, it was just impossible for him to think of him that way. But the reality of his little brother not being his little brother was reeling, and hard for him to wrap his mind around.

The state of shock that Tony's words had placed him and basically everyone else in the room in, was shattered when the nurse burst in. Okay, maybe it was more of a quietly walking in, but it really felt like bursting. She took a good look around the room and raised a single eyebrow at Coulson, who shrugged back. Clearing her throat, she spoke.

"Well, you seemed to being having issues already, so let me pile another one on top. Loki thinks he dreamed up the entire stabbing and I need your decision over whether or not we tell him the truth. Also the Tesseract's energy may still be in him, I'm not sure about that one though."

For once, Coulson didn't tell Clint off for making an over dramatic groan. He was having to fight the urge to make on himself.

A/N:

When I finished the first chapter, I thought it would be about 7 chapters, maybe a bit more, probably less. I like proving myself wrong.


	23. The Fourth Branch

"Well, that's just great. At the very least we have a higher chance of not mentally scarring him as much when he gets the truth verses what was going through his mind before him."

For the first time in a while, Clint spoke up from his perch. The attention in the room was shifted to him, a seconds worth of reading into Clint's words prompted the nurse to attempt to get a confirmation.

"So we are going to inform him of the truth? Or are one of you?"

This caused Thor to speak up, looking much like a kicked and confused puppy.

"I do not understand the reasoning of you two, would it not be best if Loki thought it was only a dream?"

Coulson took a breath before answering, reminding himself that Thor had in no way been prepared to suddenly have the responsibilities of a parent thrust upon him and that the fact that he hadn't totally screwed something up yet was something to be commemorated. Calmly he began to explain things to Thor.

"No, for two reasons. Firstly, he has had way too many lies told to him in his life already, and secondly, if he finds out the truth and we've lied to him, there will be no way for us to convince that we didn't help her with the attack. So the truth is going to be the best option, the only issue remaining is who is going to tell him."

This caused a sullen silence to fall over the room. Said silence was broken after roughly a minute by the beeping of the nurse's pad. Glancing down at it, her eyes went wide. Scanning the information given to her, she looked up at them with a 'This-is-gonna-suck' smile.

"Good news, nobody has to tell him. Bad news, that's because Tony just did. I just got an alert from one of the other doctors, but Loki seems to be handling it alright. Tony's in there with him now, the doctors do not want to remove him until Loki's fallen back asleep to prevent Loki from getting scared. They are also not allowing anyone else in. Shall we head over there and completely ignore what they're saying now?"

Coulson gave her a weak smile and responded with,

"Yep. Let's go now."

As he stalked out of the doorway. The others followed him, some more slowly than the rest, namely Thor was seeming rather shell-shocked.

When they arrived, it was to the same three doctors muttering amongst themselves, before they could even try to stop him. Coulson pulled his badge out and called rank.

"I am not going to listen to any advice to the contrary, so you may as well just save us the trouble and step aside now."

A three second glaring match pursued, before the doctors begrudgingly stepped aside, grumbling all the while. As much as they would love to bar his entry, he had enough rank to be able to disobey the orders of any medical officials, so long as they didn't involve his own health. Not even Director Fury got that right.

Gently, Coulson pushed open the door, expecting to find yelling or shouting or tears. What he was not expecting to see was Loki smiling. A real true smile. For the entire time he had been here, Loki hadn't given a smile to anyone, Clint had approached him about it as one of the problems Loki was having. But there he was, with a happy smile on his face, looking about ready to laugh at something Tony had said.

Speaking of Tony, he was sitting to the side of the bed, sharing the smile with Loki. Coulson has no idea what he had said, but now he wasn't so sure that they should be here. He had halted in his tracks, this may have not been the best of ideas mostly due to the fact that the nurse was directly behind him and was unable to see the same scene that he was and thus a collision accrued.

Said collision caused Coulson and the nurse to stumble to the floor, the nurse's legs tripped Steve and he also fell, when he reached out to try and grab onto something to stop his fall he grabbed onto Clint who grabbed onto Thor. Long story short it ended up being a large pile of people. Tony was laughing his head off and Coulson just barely managed to hear a few giggles from Loki before the young god shifted into a concerned mode.

"Are you all okay?"

Loki asked, still fighting to keep the light giggles out of his voice. He wasn't doing a very good job of it though and a few more managed to slip out, just enough so that everyone in the room heard them and also were put into a similar state of shock. It took a few seconds more of the silence for Loki to break them out of their shock by repeating his question, now sounding a bit more concerned.

Coulson quickly gathered himself back together and attempted to make his way out of the pile as he responded.

"I am fine, I do not think anyone else is hurt. Sorry about that."

Mumbled agreements resounded from the others as they disentangled themselves from one another. Tony was still laughing his head off at them.

When they had finally managed to pull themselves out of the pile and Coulson had shooed off the doctors for a second time, only managing to do so with Loki's help of informing them that he was absolutely fine. Everyone settled down at a place in the room, now feeling more than a little awkward.

After a little bit, Coulson spoke up.

"So you're feeling better? And Tony told you about what really happened with the pilot?"

A nod was coupled with Loki's verbal response.

"Yes to both. Well, unless what really happen wasn't that one of the agents went a bit crazy and attacked me."

Coulson gave a mixed happy-sad grin at that and answered with a bit of a laugh in his voice.

"Well, more like she went a lot crazy, but basically yes. Did he tell you anything after that?"

"No, I was wondering why I'm not hurt now though. He was about to tell me, but then you guys fell in."

"I used a very small amount of the Tesseract's energy to heal you. When I attempted it, you were already dead and it brought you back."

At that Loki's mood changed just a little, he looked a mix of curious and tense. Coulson wanted to ask right away what the problem was, but he waited and allowed Loki to work the words out of himself.

"The Tesseract. That's the thing with the warm glowy blues light, right."

This time the nod was from Coulson. Suddenly he recalled the other thing the nurse had said.

'_The Tesseract's energy may still be in him'_

It seems the others who had heard it as well, were also tensing up. Loki spoke after a few seconds.

"Well, I'm not sure, but I keep getting this feeling like something's protecting me, and when I fell asleep, the nightmares weren't there. It was all darkness and a blue light surrounding me."

He paused to look up at Coulson with a rather serious look.

"I don't think the energy left me when I was better. 

A/N:

Sorry this is a bit late, but life was chaos over the weekend. Luckily I have a break coming up and I should be able to get more updates out then.


	24. The Fifth Branch

Coulson bit his lip before shaking his head. If that was how things were there wasn't much they could do about it, besides from what Loki had told them it wasn't hurting him. Carefully he chose his words so as not to hurt any feelings.

"Well, I doubt there is anything we could do to extract it that wouldn't be dangerous for you. So until it becomes a problem, we'll leave it alone. Alright?"

A nod from Loki assured him. A slight silence fell over the room, not even a bad silence. Just a silence. Of course this is the avengers we are talking about, and Tony did not do silence. So he said something.

"Now that we've covered that, I was wondering how you'd feel about going to the mountains for a bit. Pepper has been on my case about taking some sort of vacation and I'm fairly sure the same could be said for SHIELD and Agent."

And they were back to the awkward silence. Damn it Tony. Thor looked about ready to start the yelling again, until Loki spoke up. His voice was almost silent, yet everyone in the room managed to hear it, the strength of it grew over time.

"I-if y-you w-want t-to go. I-I would l-like that too."

The look that would have been on Coulson's face if it weren't for his agent training was priceless. The fact that Loki had managed to ask for something, and do so without losing that faint glimmer of a smile in his eyes was something he had never seen in an abuse victim at Loki's level. Whatever it was that Tony had said to Loki must have had a magic of its own. Coulson was going to need to figure out what it was he had said.

"Alright, that's settled then. We should be able to leave in three days tops. Now if you will excuse me, I am an hour late for the meeting that Pepper said she would kill me if I was any more then and hour and a half late for, and I wouldn't put it past her this time."

As he strode out the door. Jumping up, Coulson darted after him, determined to know what he had said. A few seconds after he had left the room, Clint noticed the fearful look on Loki's face and decided to clarify for him.

"Pepper won't really kill him. It's just something we say on Midgard."

This brought forth a breath of relief from Loki, who had clearly taken the words seriously.

Out in the hallway, Coulson had just barely managed to catch up with Tony. When he finally did, he spun him around by the wrist so that he was facing him and said.

"Hold up a second. What did you say to Loki to get him to be so happy?"

To which Tony responded with a half sly half real grin and the words,

"That, is between two inventors and those two inventors only."

Before he twisted his wrist out of the loose grip and strode down the hallway, and around the corner. Coulson stood in a mix of annoyance and understanding, for a few more seconds he waited as if an answer was going to pull itself out of thin air, but nothing of the sort came. Finally, he gave a sigh and turned to go join the others.

-* Two Days Later *-

Once the chaos had been at least somewhat subdued, and Loki had returned with them to Tony's house after two days of being within the SHIELD medical center due to the demands of the doctors, everyone had begun to pack for the trip. For Thor and Loki, neither of them had really had a chance to fully unpack their current possessions, so repacking was not that much of a problem.

Or it wouldn't have been if the time alone in his room had brought up memories of Thor's fight with Tony. Thor was currently lying on his bed, his eyes closed as he mulled over his thoughts.

Loki was and always would be Thor's little brother, Thor would always love him regardless of anything that accrued between the two of them, but it was hard for him to grasp that he could be related to the creature he had been raised to hate. For his whole life he had been taught that the Jotunns were a thing to be feared and what would eat bad little children who didn't listen to their parents. But Loki clearly disproved that theory. So what were they really like? Were they a loyal and easy going people, who had only been trying to defend themselves against the Asgardians?

Was there anything from his childhood his parents had not lied to him about? Because at this point, he couldn't believe anything they had told him. Hel, one plus one might equal three for all he knew.

A sigh escaped his lips as he opened his eyes and pushed himself off the bed. There wasn't anything he could do about it now. But when he took the throne, he would be sure to try to reach out to the frost giants.

Meanwhile, Clint, Loki and Tony had finished their packing and were now sitting out in the TV/lounge area. Tony was trying to explain the basics of how a TV worked to Loki, and he was half succeeding. It turned out that Magic obeyed many of the same principles as science, but it was only useable to certain people. After that Loki had shyly showed a few of his spells to Tony, Clint had been watching a bit more discreetly, but he had been just as transfixed by the green magic.

It was only then that he remembered he didn't actually know where they were going besides that it was going to be somewhere with mountains. Clint voiced his thoughts, all the while fighting the urged to punch himself for having waited two days before asking this question.

"Hey Tony, where are we going exactly?"

Tony looked over his shoulder to where Clint was seated against the wall, a grin covering his face as he responded.

"Alaska, up near Fairbanks. We should be able to catch the new moon which is when the northern lights are brightest. I thought it would be a good sight for the Asgardians."

This brought forth a puzzled look from Loki, he tilted his head slightly looking rather confused and asked,

"Why would a cardinal direction affect lamps?"

A/N:

A quick explanation of what has happened in this universe, Loki never killed Laufey, instead there was an issue with the translation spells so he/Asgard only thought that he had killed Laufey. Rather than that, he has killed the leader of a really troublesome group of bandits, the actually Laufey thought they were doing it as a favor for him and as a sign of peace, so it didn't break the treaty.

I never saw the first Thor, but I think that should make a little bit of sense given the plot.

Also, note to self: Stop typing. It isn't working. I can't stop. I'm trapped in a loop of never being satisfied with the ending I have written for the chapter. It won't let me stop help meeeoiashfosdjnhiy8wehionfdhot43orenogh.

This is the author's beta. Sorry about that. As soon as her condition stabilizes, she'll be able to continue writing.


	25. The Sixth Branch

Tony very nearly face palmed. You'd think he would know better than to use names that could very easily be misunderstood.

"No, uh, wrong name. It's really called the Aurora Borealis, the name the northern lights comes from the fact you find it up north and they're lights. Not like human made lights, something to do with solar winds."

Still looking somewhat confused, Loki nodded, seeming to choose not to question him. He seemed to think for a moment before asking a second question.

"What is Alaska?"

Damn. This was probably going to take a lot of explaining. And involve politics, Tony hated politics. But it wouldn't be fair to not explain these sorts of things to Loki, so he spoke to Jarvis hiding the slight annoyance he held.

"J, pull up a map of the US for me."

The TV in front of them glowed to life and displayed on it was a map of the US, the coloring was unrealistic in order to show the borders but it got the physical features correct. Loki seemed transfixed by it, and it struck Tony that maybe this wouldn't be so bad.

As it would turn out, Loki was a very curious kid, and a single question could led into an hour's discussion of explaining the levels upon levels that went into question that with any other kid would have been easy to answer. The reason for this being that once he'd been given the first answer, he would ask either "How" or "Why" and said questions would continue until Loki had either managed to stump whomever he was asking (which happened pretty quickly for basically anyone but Tony) or he finally felt that he fully understood the matter at hand.

He also seemed to want nothing more in the world then to surround himself with books. The collection of books that Tony had was quite large, something that surprised both Steve and Clint, and Loki had managed to start reading in English with the help of his spells. Currently, all of them were on a plane headed up towards Alaska. Loki was trying to figure out how an airplane worked, Tony may or may not be trying to help him connect the dots on his own rather than giving him a straight answer. It was a game Tony had played with some of the few students who even had a shot at keeping up with him in collage. He had found that it worked a lot better for learning purposes and he also wanted to see what connections Loki could find between Magic and Science.

Tony was still trying to fully figure out how magic worked. He had a theory on blood types and a special formation in the brain that allowed the conversation of energy to Magic, but it would be almost impossible to test without having some other magicians. Any tests run on Loki would be completely invalid because any differences between him and another person could simple be because of his Jotunn heritage. The spell that changed his form seemed to be more than an illusion would, so there was no telling what it could do to his brain or how any scanning equipment could effect it. It was probably best to not push it.

The others, minus Bruce had either been unable to keep up or in Clint's case just gotten bored with the conversation and seemed to be entertaining themselves. Thor was still keeping one eye on Loki while he attempted to work a Starkpad, but he wasn't overly worried. Slowly the flight neared its destination, a landing strip in the Brook's range.

It was a bit of a rough landing but the pilot was one of the best in the field (Also not a psycho) and he managed to pull it off even with the heavy winds and slick roadway. A few minutes were spent gathering their bags and pulling on some winter gear for the short walk to the 'cabin' it was really more of a lodge. Thor insisted on putting Loki in a thick puffy coat, gloves and snow pants that hinder his walking abilities more than a little. Everyone else in on the plane wanted to point out to Thor that Loki was a Jotunn and should be perfectly fine in the cold, including Loki, but Thor was having none of it and it seemed much easier to just let him have his way.

Finally they all managed to stumble into the lodge. It had the classic wood log look on the outside, and the inside matched, with a stone fireplace, a log style make and soft patterned rugs, it really looked the part of an old lodge. Nothing like what they would have expected anything of Tony's to look like. After a few moments of the surprised looks, the inventor said something half jumbled about it being passed down in the family and never having time to renovate.

Steve, for one, wasn't complaining. It looked much like something out of his day and age if not a bit earlier and it felt very homely. Much more so than the beehives called cities.

A few more seconds passed before Tony directed everyone to where their rooms were, right before basically vanishing. Seriously, they had no idea where he went, he just rounded a corner and was off. Steve, Clint and Bruce decided that he was probably fine and rather than worrying, they should go unpack. The two brothers followed suit abet a little more reluctantly.

The rooms were all nearby each other, with Loki and Thor's doors facing on another at the end of the hallway and Clint and Steve's nearer to the front. Bruce's door was at the very front of the hallway, facing another door that didn't appear to have been opened. There were two other hallways so presumable Tony was staying in one of those rooms. Loki made it all the way into his room, pulling off all the snow gear he could manage before he wondered for the first time where Thor had gotten it. A touch clearly revealed that it wasn't a pelt nor was it made of cotton or leather. Now that he thought about it, Loki wondered where most of Midgardian's clothing came from, it was all so oddly colored. He would have to ask Tony about it.

Loki liked Tony, he was nice and really smart. Even the few scholars in Asgard weren't as smart as him, and Tony was willing to talk to him and answer his questions. The scholars in Asgard normally claimed to find him annoying whenever he asked them a question they couldn't answer, but the few times Tony didn't know the answer, he would help Loki find it. In the past couple of days Loki had been able to learn more than he would have been able to in several years in Asgard. At the thought of the place, Loki tensed up a little, he still didn't like to think about that. Slowly he breathed in and out, trying to tune out those stupid voices muttering to him in his head.

Before, the voices had often been his only company, and even if they often called him names, they also gave him advice and they were something to listen to when he had been forgotten again. But lately, he had started to notice that the voice's advice wasn't the best, they seemed to want him to hurt other people even when there wasn't a good reason. So he had been trying to tune them out, and for the most part they kept quiet. But the nearer they got to the mountains, the louder they had gotten.

Shaking it off, Loki unpacked the last of his things and moved towards the door, surely they couldn't do much damage inside his head. Right?

A/N:

The normal Thursday update will not be happening, instead, you guys will be getting a much large update on next Monday.


	26. The Seventh Branch

Opening the door, Loki peered down the hallway. It was empty, which he really should have expected. Quietly he trod towards the set of stairs which led to the entry way, taking his time to look at his surroundings. The building was clearly old, its building style somewhat like the cabins Loki had seen once or twice in the forests. Somehow, it pulled off feeling both big and small at the same time, in a good way too.

The walls were full of paintings and pictures all featuring people he didn't know. Cut logs with showing wood grains and rounded bottoms made up the stairs which were in a spiral form, and the floor was covered in rugs which had funny patterns on them. But if you looked up, the celling seemed to be miles away. It was nothing like what would normally be found in Asgard, with pretty but intimidating walls where everything was so tall it could make a crowded room feel empty. In short, Loki loved it.

Keeping up the same slow pace, the young trickster moved through the lodge. More than happy to spend his time doing nothing but exploring. It didn't take him very long to figure out with a burst of sheer delight, there were secret passageways in the house. None of them led very far and for the most part they just switched you into another room, but Loki still loved them. Asgard also had many hidden walkways and they had, at points, saved him from a nasty beating.

Not very many people knew about them, and it had always been a secret joy of his whenever he had managed to escape someone by way of knowing just which pattern to trace or how to ask a wall to move nicely. It was one of the ways he could prove to himself that sometimes being smart was just as important as muscles.

Loki remained lost in his thoughts for a few seconds more before the slam of a nearby door jolted him out of it. The door was not in his field of vision which he didn't like whatsoever, Tony hadn't said anything about anyone else coming but Coulson, and Loki didn't think that Coulson would ever slam a door. He was very nice to everyone and very calm.

Hurriedly, the young god made his way towards the front area where the noise had come from. What he found there was not what he had been expecting. Just inside the doorway stood three women, all somewhat bundled up.

One of them had wavy, pretty, red hair, she seemed to be leading the other two. The second one was wearing a knit hat and a thick coat, she had dark brown hair that was rather curly. They seemed to be having some sort of conversation, but the only word Loki could catch was 'Tasers' and he had no idea what those were. Standing a little ways behind the two of them was a lady with straighter, lighter, brown hair. She looked quite exasperated at her two companions.

Cautiously, Loki moved a little further into the room so that he could get a better view of them. This turned out to be a mistake when the movement caught the eye of the red-haired one. The conversation she had been having went dead as her attention was refocused on him. Her two companions also quieted themselves to take a look at him.

The sudden attention and lack of affirmation that they weren't a threat left Loki feeling rather shy. He inched backwards just a little bit, about ready to turn and run off, stopped only by the abrupt words from the one in the knit hat.

"So wait, is that Loki?"

This earned her a glare from the lighter haired girl. Said glare vanished when she turned her focus to Loki. In an overly gentle tone, much like that used for hurt animals, she spoke to Loki.

"Don't mind her, she's a bit obtuse. I'm Jane, and this is Natasha and Darcy. We came here with Coulson, he's currently out doing some agent stuff but he'll be here soon. You know Coulson, right?"

At the mention of Coulson's name, Loki visibly relaxed. Then tensed up again as he remembered the crazy pilot. With a fair bit of suspicion in his voice and a very serious tone he asked.

"You aren't secretly in love with him and going to stab me when I'm not looking, right?"

The one called Darcy burst out laughing. She was almost doubled over on the floor and Natasha also seemed to be having issues with keeping a straight face. Loki glared at them with a rather perturbed look. Running over his words again, he couldn't finding anything that would be worth laughing over and he was about to attempt to get them to tell him when Jane spoke to her friends.

"Knock it off you two."

Before she turned to Loki.

"No, I can promise you that none of us are secretly in love with Coulson, and none of us are planning on stabbing you."

It didn't really explain why they were laughing, but it did make Loki feel a little better. A sort of silence (Darcy was still laughing her head off) reined over the room. Jane opened her mouth to speak again, only to be cut off by the door creaking open.

This time, it was Coulson. The man was bundled up in a thick winter jacket, and a rather silly looking hat, but Loki was more than happy to see him all the same. Once he had made into the doorway, he suddenly found himself enveloped in a powerful hug. A single glance down told him that he currently had a chibi god attached to his waist. Not that he minded. Coulson was quick to return the hug, around the bag he was carrying and a smile made its way to his face.

The smile seemed to have contagious properties, because Natasha was unable to fight the one that was making its way onto her face. It had been awhile since she had seen Coulson in this good a mood, and she knew for a fact that children had always been a joy of his. Her smile only grew as she imagined the family Coulson might have when he finally left SHIELD.

Darcy was the first to speak up after a moment of silent hugging, in her usual tone.

"I get that you two are having a moment and all, but can we move to the kitchen or something? I want hot chocolate."

It was then that Loki remembered their presence and released Coulson, turning back to the three females standing in the hallway a little ways away from them. Cautiously, he glanced up to Coulson for approval, and seeing it there, he began to walk down the hallway, speaking as he went.

"The Kitchen's down this way, right behind the place with the creepy dead deer heads and the hearth."

Loki moved quite quickly, through the room with the deer heads, something Coulson took note of, and made his way into the hearth. It was only when he was almost to his destination that he realized something and turned around to face them with a confused look on his face.

"What's hot chocolate?"

A silence fell over the room. Coulson was the first to try and answer.

"Do you know what chocolate is?"

Shaking his head, Loki's look of confusion grew.

"Right, it's a sort of candy made from a Cacao bean, I guess they wouldn't have those in Asgard. Not the right growing conditions. Well, I can almost guarantee you'll like it. Basically everyone I know does. Even Nick. Don't tell him I said that."

Seemingly satisfied by that explanation, Loki finished his walk from the Hearth to the kitchen, before realizing he had no idea what to do here. Coulson noticed his confusion and quickly gestured to the table.

"Why don't you go sit down with the girls? I can handle making the Hot Chocolate. It's pretty easy."

With a reluctant mood to his steps, Loki moved over to the table and the three females followed. It wasn't hard to guess that Loki didn't like not being useful. Actually, Clint had been the same way when Coulson had first found him, he still was. It was a trait of abuse victims to always be trying to make themselves useful, because if they weren't they got hurt. It took a fair bit of will for Coulson not to flinch as he remembered Loki's past. It was easy to forget that the boy had suffered through so much with how happy he'd become.

Perhaps it was the mountain air or whatever Tony had said to him, but Loki seemed to have more life in him now than he had possessed during the entire time he had been in Midgard since Coulson had met him.

Lost in his thoughts, Coulson went about making the hot chocolate, only returning to himself as he sat down, placing the cups on the table. Everyone took one, and subtly, the adults watched as Loki took his first taste. He seemed to love it.

The five of them sat and chatted for almost a solid hour before the others finally came down. Apparently Thor was going to take a nap due to being quite weary and having been unable to sleep during their travels.

About another half an hour and an extra cup of hot chocolate for everyone but Loki, who was still on his first cup, Tony reappeared. When questioned as to where he'd been, he waved them off mumbling something about getting something ready. It took all of five minutes before both he and Loki were gone and ten for everyone to realized that they had no idea where the two of them were going.

Loki was a little unsure about this. Okay scratch that, Loki was a lot unsure of this. Currently, he and Tony were sitting at the top of a rather large hill, Tony wearing a coat and Loki wearing normal clothing plus a hat. Not that Loki minded that, he liked the view from the top of the hill and he loved the feeling of the cold on his skin. Rather what was bothering him was the fact the he was about to go sledding down said hill, _on Steve's shield. _

Tony seemed to be rather intent on not giving him time to back out though, and so before he knew it, he was speeding down the hill with the inventor only about a foot behind him.

It was awesome. From the blinding snow flurries to the blur that the world turned into, Loki loved every second of it. Up until the point where he saw Thor, running towards the bottom of the hill, looking a mix of furious and distraught.

The crash was inevitable. In order to stop himself from hitting Thor, Loki had been forced to send himself off the course and towards a border of trees. The fear rushing up within him was enough to overpower his mind and stop his magic. He forced his eyes close and waited.

Rather than crash. Loki felt himself slow down and then lifted up into the air gently. His eyes fluttered open and he took in his surrounds. All around him, was the same flowing blue light from his dream. Both he and the sled were now being gently carried toward the flat part of the hill where Thor and Tony were both watching, their faces reflecting the same stunned feel Loki was having.

Slowly, he was set down by the blue light and for a few moments nobody spoke. And then Thor exploded. Much to Loki's surprise, Thor wasn't angry at him, but rather he seem furious with Tony for letting Loki get into danger. Also he was yelling something about proper snow gear.

Loki really didn't want to interrupt them, but they were both yelling now and he was starting to get pretty scared. Suddenly, he wasn't on the mountain anymore, he was in Odin and Frigga's room again, trying to hide from the blows and failing. The words Tony and Thor had been shouting at one another were now being shouting at him, engulfing his mind. He was trying to hide him in the corner and failing.

And then he heard the voices stop, slowly his mind returned to the mountain. His body was shaking, and his eyes still wouldn't see who it was standing in front of him. Gradually the feeling returned to his body and he found himself enveloped in his brother's arms. Tony was standing just a little ways off looking awful and worried and Loki started to feel very guilty. He hadn't meant to make them worry.

Lastly, his hearing pulled itself away from the cruel words being echoed again and again, drilling a deep hole into his head. Instead he began to hear Thor's words, murmured apologizes and reassurance, also being echoed, but this echo was filling the hole, not drilling it deeper.

Finally he was back, the fighting had stopped and he jolted back to life. Loki couldn't meet Thor's eyes. How could have been so weak as to freak out over a little shouting?

That train of thought might have gone on, but for once, Thor saw through him.

"Loki, that was not your fault. I should have known better than to start a fight around you, I also should have thought before I moved into you're way. Are you alright?"

Tears were now fighting their way from Loki's eyes. It was the sort of tears you couldn't explain, tears that were obeying your hidden sadness and not you. For the first time in his life, Loki buried his face into his brother's shoulder and let them out.

About two hours later, after having calmed down Loki and explaining things to everyone else. All of them were seated in a small building that had a celling that retracted and would leave nothing between them and the northern lights but a sheet of glass that kept off the snow. They were in luck and the skies were clear. The Northern Lights were expected to be at their prime. Only five minutes of waiting took place before the spirits of the north began their dance across the sky. Tony was seated on one side of Loki, with Thor on the other. Keeping his eyes fixed on the lights, he asked.

"So, what do you think of them."

He waited a few seconds to no answer. Worried, he tore his eyes away from the lights and looked towards Loki, about to restate his question, when he noticed that Loki eyes had lost their green color and were instead glowing with the swirling purples, pinks and blues of the Northern Lights.

Damn it.

A/N:

Everything is conspiring against me writing.

My flipping cat died on the day I was planning on writing.

It was a bear attack. The bear never stood a chance.

Okay maybe it was a heart condition. But if anyone asks, I'm telling them it was a bear.

Thank you for reading and see you on Thursday.


End file.
